Just be clear!

with thanks to my dear friend Erkan.

From Moscow with Love

Youth is such wonderful a thing. 
Isn't it a shame it's wasted on children?

Or why would I have made a clipping of this pic in the early 90s?

Evening Stroll

Who would want to talk about politics?
[Ah, who'd be able to mention all topics in the labels?]

When it comes to marching . . .

. . . Many do not know

That their enemy is marching at their head.

The voice which gives them their orders

Is their enemy's voice and

The man who speaks of the enemy
Is the enemy himself.

Bertold Brecht

Laughing Lhursday

According to the Guardian Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's hardline ultra-nationalist ambassador to Nato, also today voiced his support for the embattled Assange. He tweeted that Assange's arrest and incarceration on Monday at the City of Westminster magistrates' court demonstrated that there was "no media freedom" in the west. Assange's "fate" amounted to "political persecution" and a lack of human rights, the ambassador said.

Some of the next

Who will be the next? I asked about three weeks ago.

Well, one week after the murder of Natalya Estemirova, the body of Andrei Kulagin was found in Karelia.

Another week later on Spiegel international online one could read (more) about The Triumph of Fear in Russia;

And there might have been some more 'the next', of which we will probably not come to know.

Today, in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, another journalist - Malik Akhmedilov - was shot in his car; and in Chechnya's capital, Grozny, one day after they had been kidnapped Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Umar Dzhabrailov, have been found in a car's boot - with gunshot wounds to their heads and chests.

Zarema Sadulayeva headed Save the Generation, a group that for several years worked with Unicef and Western [and Russian*] aid organisations to provide prosthetic limbs, surgical operations and counseling for victims of the terror in Chechnya.

Rights groups such as Memorial blame the forces of the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, for abductions, killings and torture.

So do I, adding but two names: Medvedev and Putin.

And I am tired to ask Who will be the next? ...

The peace of the night.

* somehow, to mention this in most Western media would simply be forgotten ...

Poison of democracy

The Russian tabloid newspaper that reported President Vladimir Putin was planning to marry an Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast has been shut down.
Continue here.

Mind you, I am not focusing on Mr. Putin copulating with Angela Merkel, Alina Kabaeva or whomsoever, but on the shutting down of newspapers.

Mind you, I do scorn on hack writers and paparazzi who'd do all to get a photo showing f.e. a sweet tiny ministrant serving the pope.
As long as people would buy such so-called tabloids there is a market, isn't there?

And here we are: As soon as people would not buy them, there would not be any market for tabloids.

Meanwhile: By surpressing freedom of speech Mr. Putin does deserve to be wholeheartedly
swearboarded.

Mind you, if I were Mr. Putin I'd not know how to cope with all the / his problems.

P.S. I am glad that Mr. Putin is (not yet) able to shut down this blog. Being one of his poor countrymen, I'd very probably not be as brave a Anna Politkovskaja, but rather singing a song of praise to honour this crooked and dishonest man.

P.P.S. I am not Martin Luther King. But I do have a dream: Mr Putin may fuck whoever erroneosly thinks he is attractive, but not the people of Russia or any other country. Same goes for all Bushs, Cheneys and Khomeinis of this world.

Kafka, the Kremlin and Kasparov

"Am in Erzurum. The
worshippers to dead
sardines' heads are
forming a
supranational elite.
Until soon,
kind regards,
Tetrapilotomos."

You remember this message I received November 16th?

Well, since, I had been living lovely quiet days, snapping at the chance to rereading parts of the correspondence between Voltaire and Frederic II., Saramago's The Seeing, and, after all, listening to Harry Rowohlt reading the complete volume of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, altogether 23 hours and 24 minutes on 22 CDs which had been last year's Christmas present.

There had been but five more messages, each containing of three words: Am in Istanbul, Am in Stockholm, Am in Moscow, Am in Bern. The last arrived Wednesday evening: Am in Lisbon.

Now, tonight watching the beginning of Kafka's "Castle", who drops in?
Right. My closest friend.

Here I am.

Welcome back, Tetrapilotomos. How ...

Ah, Kafka's Kremlin. Ulrich Mühe is brilliant in the Kasparov role.

You did not have a date with Mary Jo?

No.

Tetrapilotomos! Kafka took his last dwelling six feet under almost 40 years before Kasparov made his first move by leaving his first dame.

Are you sure?

A strong tea, Tetrapilotomos?

Yes. As K. awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed into an asteroid; in 1983 this asteroid would be discovered by Randolph Kirk and Donald Rudy who would name it 3412 Kafka, and in the same year "Amerika" would be published. Sean, don't you understand? It's a gig.....

Coming to think of it I do hastily agree. Otherwise, in a minute you'll tell Flann O'Brien is Kafka's reincarnation.

Was.

Is. Anyway, it's lovely to have you back, my friend. It was so quiet and I missed you so much.

Alright, seriously: But you will agree if Kafka were Russian, he would be a Costumbrista writer, won't you?

Would he be a Costumbrista writer, he were Mexican.

Why? Take it as an ingredient of globalisation ... or, this may please you more, of Omnium.

*

Well, actually I had intended to watch the film and afterwards to hear Tetrapilotomos telling a few (!) tales of his trip.
Instead, I did see nothing of the film, and ... the rest you know.

Now I am tired. Suppose tomorrow I'll need nerves of steel.

The peace of the night.


- - -

For those interested to read a little more about the (unfinished) novel, the film and its director: Voilà.

More about Kafka - and surprisingly not bad for the beginning - you find here.

And for those who could not get enough, highly commended: The Kafka Project.

News from Russia ha ha ha

There have been elections in Russia?

I see.

The media are selling the results as news.

A "news" which a ready wit might have written twelve weeks or twelve months beforehand with sufficient accuracy.