Saturday, May 11, 2019
Friday, May 10, 2019
Very sad--halo dropped to the floor.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-genocide.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer
As long ago as the late 1990s, Jack Healey, former head of Amnesty International, warned Burmese dissidents in Washington DC that "dissidents often come to resemble the regime they oppose."
Healey went to see ASSK and said he was very disappointed in her isolation, "she railed against (a woman who abandoned her first husband and ran away with another)--(wasting valuable time."
Healey told me "I would have done anything she asked me to" (but she was too isolated to know or understand international politics.)"
He also said, "I've met a lot of impressive figures before, including Nelson Mandela, but I was most impressed by her."
He said he managed to get out the most important item, a signed photograph of her.
Jack Healey pioneered the practice of enlisting celebrities in the struggle for human rights. He was isntrumental is arranging for Shepherd Fairey to paint his iconic portrait of Dr Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate.
I didn't relate everything Jack Healey said earlier, because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest.
She didn't set the Rohingya up to be persecuted--she didn't set up the 2 journalists nor arrest them,
but I think she has an "identity problem" and she is in a hard place, whereas the generals are used to poker-facing the world without losing their temper. She also has to survive, but she needs to be careful.
Either way the Rohingya issue is unlikely to subside.
1 m displaced refugees don't and can't become suddenly invisible--and the ICC is still a real possibility.
When I related to a strong international human rights crusader how this picture had suddenly disppeared online, he said angrily, "How can it?"--(he was a liberal Muslim, non-Burmese, a strong supporter of ASSK). When I described this same photo which I found later to another Burmese woman (not very political) she said, "But that's not very Burmese, to touch a man on his chest."
I was trying to say that she is not a racist.
She wouldn't have married a foreigner and had 2 bi-racial children if she were, and in college, she allegedly was in love with an Indian student.
But all that is personal.
I don't believe we should look at politics or economics in a personalized way.
A Rohingya activist (not a Muslim, Not a Rohingya and not Burmese) told me in 2012 that the junta wants the Rakhine/Arakan Coast for their Shwe Pipeline to Yunnan in China. It's already built and gas already flowing.
So they invented this crisis.
kmk
5-10-2019
As long ago as the late 1990s, Jack Healey, former head of Amnesty International, warned Burmese dissidents in Washington DC that "dissidents often come to resemble the regime they oppose."
Healey went to see ASSK and said he was very disappointed in her isolation, "she railed against (a woman who abandoned her first husband and ran away with another)--(wasting valuable time."
Healey told me "I would have done anything she asked me to" (but she was too isolated to know or understand international politics.)"
He also said, "I've met a lot of impressive figures before, including Nelson Mandela, but I was most impressed by her."
He said he managed to get out the most important item, a signed photograph of her.
Jack Healey pioneered the practice of enlisting celebrities in the struggle for human rights. He was isntrumental is arranging for Shepherd Fairey to paint his iconic portrait of Dr Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate.
I didn't relate everything Jack Healey said earlier, because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest.
She didn't set the Rohingya up to be persecuted--she didn't set up the 2 journalists nor arrest them,
but I think she has an "identity problem" and she is in a hard place, whereas the generals are used to poker-facing the world without losing their temper. She also has to survive, but she needs to be careful.
Either way the Rohingya issue is unlikely to subside.
1 m displaced refugees don't and can't become suddenly invisible--and the ICC is still a real possibility.
I was trying to say that she is not a racist.
She wouldn't have married a foreigner and had 2 bi-racial children if she were, and in college, she allegedly was in love with an Indian student.
But all that is personal.
I don't believe we should look at politics or economics in a personalized way.
A Rohingya activist (not a Muslim, Not a Rohingya and not Burmese) told me in 2012 that the junta wants the Rakhine/Arakan Coast for their Shwe Pipeline to Yunnan in China. It's already built and gas already flowing.
So they invented this crisis.
kmk
5-10-2019
Anne Nelson--Suzanne's Children--
https://www.amazon.com/Suzannes-Children-Daring-Rescue-Paris-ebook/product-reviews/B06ZYGFMSJ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=two_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar
Good story but writing too factual and fast.
5-10-2019
Good story but writing too factual and fast.
5-10-2019
Siberian iris
I didn't know they are so old and from Europe.
There's a beautiful stand growing near me.
In Netherlands, I saw a garden shrine to Clusius and visited his botanic garden.
km
trmp escalates trade war, China says it will fight back.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/business/china-us-tariffs-trade/index.html
He does not understand tariffs. No one wins a trade war.
Probably this is his worst distraction, from Mueller probe.
5-10-2019
He does not understand tariffs. No one wins a trade war.
Probably this is his worst distraction, from Mueller probe.
5-10-2019
Thursday, May 09, 2019
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Ed Young--bat-winged dinosaur found in China
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/ambopteryx-another-bat-winged-dinosaur-has-been-found/588940/
I love Ed Young's writing, so clear and enchanting.
5-8-2019
I love Ed Young's writing, so clear and enchanting.
5-8-2019
Guns should be BANNED in USA--student who tackled gunman killed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/next-thing-i-know-he-pulling-gun-colorado-student-school-n1003226
NRA should be BANNED too--all the parents should SUE the NRA and the trmp admin.
IMPEACH
Ban NRA and handguns.
This is too much.
Stand with the INNOCENT VICTIMS.
NRA should be BANNED too--all the parents should SUE the NRA and the trmp admin.
IMPEACH
Ban NRA and handguns.
This is too much.
Stand with the INNOCENT VICTIMS.
Uber drivers strike world wide--
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/8/18535367/uber-drivers-strike-2019-cities
They should be allowed to unionize and have all rights.
5-8-2019
They should be allowed to unionize and have all rights.
5-8-2019
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Very funny book--Roald Dahl: Going Solo.
I thought it was about traveling alone, but it's abt eccentricities of former colonials.
Dahl is a very good writer, very funny.
I could write something like that abt all the strange Burmese birds.
Glad book group in my building is reading it, but I almost never go to this group.
km
5-7-2019
Journalist Ko Par Gyi's death in 2014
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app5.118
In September 2014, a freelance journalist and erstwhile political activist, 49‐year‐old Ko Par Gyi travelled to the eastern frontier of Myanmar, or Burma, to document and report on recent fighting between government troops and a splinter unit from an anti‐government armed group active in the region. He was last seen being loaded onto an army vehicle in the town of Kyaikmayaw, in Mon State. It took over 3 weeks for his wife, Ma Thandar, to learn he was dead: shot, the defence ministry said, while trying to escape from an encampment on the outskirts of a rural village.
Ma Thandar, a former political prisoner and experienced advocate for civil rights, was not going to settle for the army's story. After initiating a campaign that drew a response from the country's president and attracted international interest, she succeeded in getting officials to dig up her husband's body from the shallow unmarked grave where soldiers had hastily buried him. But the recovery of a body does not mark the end of the struggle against impunity. It merely demarcates the moment at which a single fact—the victim's death in custody—is rendered undeniable. With this fact established, the struggle against impunity begins in earnest.
In September 2014, a freelance journalist and erstwhile political activist, 49‐year‐old Ko Par Gyi travelled to the eastern frontier of Myanmar, or Burma, to document and report on recent fighting between government troops and a splinter unit from an anti‐government armed group active in the region. He was last seen being loaded onto an army vehicle in the town of Kyaikmayaw, in Mon State. It took over 3 weeks for his wife, Ma Thandar, to learn he was dead: shot, the defence ministry said, while trying to escape from an encampment on the outskirts of a rural village.
Ma Thandar, a former political prisoner and experienced advocate for civil rights, was not going to settle for the army's story. After initiating a campaign that drew a response from the country's president and attracted international interest, she succeeded in getting officials to dig up her husband's body from the shallow unmarked grave where soldiers had hastily buried him. But the recovery of a body does not mark the end of the struggle against impunity. It merely demarcates the moment at which a single fact—the victim's death in custody—is rendered undeniable. With this fact established, the struggle against impunity begins in earnest.
2 Everyday Impunity and Insecurity
Trump's tariff threat causes stock market slide--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMk6L4eoG2Q
He doesn't understand tariffs and is certainly not on the side of the average US consumer, given that all the consumer goods we buy are made in China or other developing countries.
And he doesn't understand tariff wars have "both sides."
Another distraction by trmp to show his power.
At the same time Treasury Sec. Mnuchin (of the official airplane to see the sun eclipse, the actress wife and the photo shoot at the mint) is defying/breaking law by refusing to turn over trmp tax returns for 6 years
and Barr did not respond to subpoena, also breaking the law.
Indict, IMPEACH.
5-7-2019
He doesn't understand tariffs and is certainly not on the side of the average US consumer, given that all the consumer goods we buy are made in China or other developing countries.
And he doesn't understand tariff wars have "both sides."
Another distraction by trmp to show his power.
At the same time Treasury Sec. Mnuchin (of the official airplane to see the sun eclipse, the actress wife and the photo shoot at the mint) is defying/breaking law by refusing to turn over trmp tax returns for 6 years
and Barr did not respond to subpoena, also breaking the law.
Indict, IMPEACH.
5-7-2019
Met Gala--silly to sublime to maybe downright awful or theatrical.
https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/met-gala-2019-red-carpet-live-celebrity-fashion#91
I think people need to escape from trump world.
5-7-2019
I think people need to escape from trump world.
5-7-2019
Monday, May 06, 2019
Stephen Baxter wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter_(author)
Amazingly prolific in 4 different sub-genres of sci fi and fantasy.
5-6-2019
Amazingly prolific in 4 different sub-genres of sci fi and fantasy.
5-6-2019
Stephen Baxter--Stone Spring, first in the Northland Trilogy.
https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Spring-Northland-Stephen-Baxter/dp/045146446X#reader_045146446X
Yes, it's slow starting, before Baxter starts to flesh out his imaginary world with more confidence.
Nevertheless, it's intriguing and well thought out, and a lot deeper than Jean M. Auel, which has characters acting in a 20th century way--for instance, Stone Age people did not throw off their furs to have sex.
It was way too cold.
km
5-6-2019
Yes, it's slow starting, before Baxter starts to flesh out his imaginary world with more confidence.
Nevertheless, it's intriguing and well thought out, and a lot deeper than Jean M. Auel, which has characters acting in a 20th century way--for instance, Stone Age people did not throw off their furs to have sex.
It was way too cold.
km
5-6-2019
Stephen Baxter's Bronze Summer--
https://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Summer-Northland-Trilogy/dp/0451464796#reader_0451464796
A magnificent and well-written novel of a closely imagined world.
5-6-2019
A magnificent and well-written novel of a closely imagined world.
5-6-2019
Happy to see this list also places Evolution, and Ark at top of list of Stephen Baxter's sci fi novels--
https://www.ranker.com/list/best-stephen-baxter-books/reference?page=2
But I would also put Flood and Silverhair near the top too.
kmk
5-6-2019
But I would also put Flood and Silverhair near the top too.
kmk
5-6-2019
trmp's former lawyer Michael Cohen starts his 3 year sentence--says "There's still much to be told."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/michael-cohens-last-days-of-freedom
Maggie Habberman of NYT: "And trump is still flying around on Air Force One."
Something is very wrong, Impeach.
5-6-2019
Maggie Habberman of NYT: "And trump is still flying around on Air Force One."
Something is very wrong, Impeach.
5-6-2019
Hundreds of prosecutors say trmp cld have been charged with obstruction of Justice were he not--
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-would-have-been-charged-with-obstruction-were-he-not-president-hundreds-of-former-federal-prosecutors-assert/2019/05/06/e4946a1a-7006-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dc85e0c2dda0
Something's very wrong here.
5-6-2019
Something's very wrong here.
5-6-2019
Barnes and Noble sci fi/fantasy list--
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/the-best-science-fiction-fantasy-books-of-march-2019/
After a while it sounds like they are imitating each other--
5-6-2019
After a while it sounds like they are imitating each other--
5-6-2019
Sunday, May 05, 2019
Mary Robinson's 1994 production of Othello
https://variety.com/1994/legit/reviews/othello-2-1200437382/
I was working as a part time house-manager at Annenberg Center at that time and --
1. I never knew the play tickets were so expensive, since I saw everything free, sometimes as many as 9 or 11 times. This helped my write my play Shaman in 2 weeks and it became a Pew Finalist Script and was praised separately by Edward Albee.
2. I don't agree with this critic at all. I thought the production was Excellent. Especially the actor who played Iago--who came to front of stage and told his bone-chilling plans and traps directly to the audience.
It was also the first play in which Othello was played by a well known African American actor.
After the play, he put on his street clothes again (a brown leather jacket and a cap), and I saw him walking on the street.
I got 2 complimentary tickets but my husband was not interested, and so I saw it on my own.
In a way it was like Bali, where I would visit later--one moment the villagers were dancing or playing the barong's front legs, the next they were out in the parking lot directing traffic.
km
5-5-2019
I was working as a part time house-manager at Annenberg Center at that time and --
1. I never knew the play tickets were so expensive, since I saw everything free, sometimes as many as 9 or 11 times. This helped my write my play Shaman in 2 weeks and it became a Pew Finalist Script and was praised separately by Edward Albee.
2. I don't agree with this critic at all. I thought the production was Excellent. Especially the actor who played Iago--who came to front of stage and told his bone-chilling plans and traps directly to the audience.
It was also the first play in which Othello was played by a well known African American actor.
After the play, he put on his street clothes again (a brown leather jacket and a cap), and I saw him walking on the street.
I got 2 complimentary tickets but my husband was not interested, and so I saw it on my own.
In a way it was like Bali, where I would visit later--one moment the villagers were dancing or playing the barong's front legs, the next they were out in the parking lot directing traffic.
km
5-5-2019
Saturday, May 04, 2019
Martha Graham -- Cave of the Heart
I
don't know who composed the music for this ballet, but I know an
Egyptian-born composer Halim el Dabh composed music for another one.
Set by sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
I
saw Martha Graham twice in Burma, once when I was 10 and another time
when she came in 1970s? but she could no longer dance then. In fact I remember I met my classmate Arthur C at this concert.
In introduction to this piece, she talks about her first visit to Burma.
The phrase she refers to is mon yoe tair, for when an elephant goes into musth, and might have been told to her by poet Zawgyi.
km
5-4-2019
Anniversary of Kent State killings--
https://twitter.com/hashtag/KentState?src=tren&data_id=tweet%3A1124673014577205253&lang=en
You'll need a Twitter acct to read these.
You'll need a Twitter acct to read these.
A man named Tool who gives away cups for free + NYT paywall down for May 3-5
If
you're like me, you get very frustrated when NYT or Wapo says, "you
have -- more articles", and "this is your last for this month."
Sometimes, like last month, I "saved them" till the last day, then I went on a reading binge.
Well, May 3-5, NYT paywall is down for World Press Freedom Day.
Enjoy or be sad or inform yourself, whatever, but READ.
km
5-4-2019
Friday, May 03, 2019
My Burma-Thai Border stories--Dancing like a Peacock and Koel Bird.
https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Like-Peacock-Koel-Bird/dp/1497514851
A seven year old child is sent off by her mother with a strange man, because she cannot feed her any more, to make a living in Thailand and send money home to Burma. A U.S. based computer security expert goes to give classes in Chiangmai, Northern Thailand and gets the surprise of his life.
Based on real life stories narrated to me by social workers and others--fictionalized of course.
kmk
5-3-2019
A seven year old child is sent off by her mother with a strange man, because she cannot feed her any more, to make a living in Thailand and send money home to Burma. A U.S. based computer security expert goes to give classes in Chiangmai, Northern Thailand and gets the surprise of his life.
Based on real life stories narrated to me by social workers and others--fictionalized of course.
kmk
5-3-2019
John Kelly has joined the board of the biggest migrant shelter in the country--
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-kelly-joins-board-of-caliburn-international-company-operating-largest-unaccompanied-migrant-children-shelter/
This sounds like Jewish concentration camps, incarceration of Japanese during WWII
and "Christianization" of Native-Americans.
Not good.
Shame on Kelly and trmp admin.
Kudos to journalist who broke the story.
Bestselling WWII author Diane Moody wrote that a teacher!! at a book discussion asked her about "World War Eleven"
Educate yourself. No excuse in this day and age.
In 1970s I met one Burmese editor who argues vociferously that World War II shld not be capitalizied.
It wasn't political. It was stupid. Finally she pulled out a little index card that poet Zawgyi had written--but he had forgotten to include major wars of events like the Great Depression.
KMK
5-3-2019
This sounds like Jewish concentration camps, incarceration of Japanese during WWII
and "Christianization" of Native-Americans.
Not good.
Shame on Kelly and trmp admin.
Kudos to journalist who broke the story.
Bestselling WWII author Diane Moody wrote that a teacher!! at a book discussion asked her about "World War Eleven"
Educate yourself. No excuse in this day and age.
In 1970s I met one Burmese editor who argues vociferously that World War II shld not be capitalizied.
It wasn't political. It was stupid. Finally she pulled out a little index card that poet Zawgyi had written--but he had forgotten to include major wars of events like the Great Depression.
KMK
5-3-2019
At Barr's "invitation"--Senator Amy Klobuchar has now written directly to Special Counsel Robert Mueller--
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/at-barr-suggestion-klobuchar-asks-mueller-about-trump-finances-58766917618
The problem w trmpies is they underestimate people, especially women.
There!
5-3-2019
The problem w trmpies is they underestimate people, especially women.
There!
5-3-2019
Denisovans and Neanderthals
Closed caption on this one has many spelling errors--
Found on Tibet plateau.
Tropical cyclone Fani makes landfall in India-Bangladesh Rohingya refugee camps also threatened.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/03/asia/gallery/cyclone-fani/index.html
Poor refugees, first the Burmese junta, then wild animals, then a major cyclone.
5-3-2019
Poor refugees, first the Burmese junta, then wild animals, then a major cyclone.
5-3-2019
Thursday, May 02, 2019
Award winning movie Son of Saul
I did not like (1987) Holocaust, TV series at all. Watched parts only now.
Characters
seemed stereotypical, acting not good, casting not that great either,
at same time very painful to watch. Almost impossible. Heydrich in
Holocaust was a real person who was assassinated by 2 Czechs sent by
Czech Govt in Exile and trained by British.
Interesting way sound is used in Son of Saul.
I used to write and produce my own radio shows, so know something about writing, casting and sound.
I used to record sound such as cutlery rattling in my dishwasher, birds in bush etc.
km
5-2-2019
On Twitter, #MuellerGate is trending, over 10,000 tweets already.
Open a Twitter account.
Get active.
Get active.
Wednesday, May 01, 2019
Univ of N. Carolina student who ran towards shooter knocked him off his feet, saved lives--
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/us/uncc-victims-shooting-riley-howell/index.html
Ordinary people have been compelled to do extraordinary things because trump admin is so USELESS it cannot stand up to NRA and get assault weapons off the streets.
Not fit to eat Jacinda Adern's s h ** excuse me.
IMPEACH.
5-1-2019
Ordinary people have been compelled to do extraordinary things because trump admin is so USELESS it cannot stand up to NRA and get assault weapons off the streets.
Not fit to eat Jacinda Adern's s h ** excuse me.
IMPEACH.
5-1-2019
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