Hypatia and Medine

So-called International or World Days of whatsoever leave me cold.
Day of the book for me is on 365 days, and on 366 days in leap-years. Same goes for water, bread, animals, human rights etc. etc..

Thus it will not come as a surprise that the International Women's Day for me neither is anything special.

Do I hear anyone hissing "Damn macho!"?

Sshhh sshhhh ... :)

Anyway, Welshcakes over at Sicily Scene last Monday posted such a wonderful homage to a remarkable Italian woman (oh, just don't be too lazy to drop over; I am quite sure you will not regret) that I started to think about what woman in history I'd like to praise with an homage. Well, actually I did not have to think twice.

Thus, I checked the internet, ... and got delighted: Not only that I found a nicely done video about my heroine, but there got some other admirable women mentioned.




Just to make sure: To be admired (by me), a woman does not need to be scientist or famous for this and that. I have met and do meet many women who will never be mentioned in a history book, and still are lovely, remarkable, do admirable things. And some I know who are able to put better within one or two sentences what I would perhaps not be able to explain in 50.

And what is about the second name mentioned in your title? you might ask.

Well, yes, Medine.
Medine is not famous. And the sad realist in myself is sure she will not be mentioned in history books.
You see, Medine's no scientist, no artist, no philosopher. I don't know if she was a passionate reader; if she wrote poems. I don't even know if she was able to read, properly, ... if she was given the chance, if she got encouraged to discover the realm of the letters, numbers and symbols, supported to develop her talents.

And still I do wish that once she will be mentioned in history books!

Men who from generation to generation had been taught to believe (sic!), that - (perhaps) except of one's mother - girls and women are less worth, and that "a man who does not beat his wife is no man", suddenly perceived that it is of great advantage to have an excellently learned and educated daughter, to marry an excellently learned and educated wife, to get an excellently learned and educated daughter-in-law, as she will be able to excellently - with love and knowledge - support ... their son, their grandson to become an excellently learned and educated human being.

Medine will not have a son.
I'd like so much to know more about Medine.
Unfortunately, I do not know much more about her than that she's 16 and, that it's said she sometimes talked to boys, that complaining violence against her mother and herself she asked policemen for help and shortly afterwards disappeared - buried alive by her father and grandfather.

The peace of the night.

Never wake a lazy lion

Ladies and gentlemen,
Dames en heren,
Bayanlar, Baylar,
Signoras e Signori,
Señoras y Señores,
Mesdames et Messieurs,
Friends,

I am so sorry to cause inconviences.

Some religious nutters cause me, in a first step to ask for word verification. As soon as the lady and the gentleman* (or the machine) get tired and thus decide to focus on other poor bloggers, I shall return to easy business as usual.


* My esteemed readers will notice that on my quest to become the politest blogger in this universe and those yet to discover, I did not call mentioned lady and gentleman names.
Otherwise, I'd say they are fucking idiots.

The peace of the night.

High noon (not only) for photographers

The two previous posts with quotations by Lichtenberg (re prejudices) and Franklin (re liberty) may be taken as an intro to this one.

They were also a reminder for me before putting my head on the pillow last night, in case I'd happen to wake up again not to forget reminding of what fellow blogger and -flannophil, Jams O'Donnell , on December 14th announced for January 23, thus tomorrow:

A gathering of photographers, professionals and amateurs,
at Trafalgar Square at noon,
organised to defend (y)our rights and
stop the abuse of the terror laws.

More about the organisers and the(ir) very serious reasons to speak out you will find here.

So, if you, unlike myself, are living in or near London: Lift your backside and do it: Show those who are still not your leaders but nothing else but your representatives that you are fed up with their understanding of democracy, and that you are not willing to give in. Defend (y)our rights!
Cure your elected - and (still) diselectable (!) - representants from their prejudice that each photographer, each human being has to be treated as a potential criminal or even terrorist.
Defend your (essential) liberty!

Don't you deserve them?

Those who would give up essential liberty
to purchase a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Universal dialogue

Human masters: Globally, temperature must not exceed 2°C!

Universe: ...

Pain(t)ing history or: Human's got talent

Why would I while pondering about what Kseniya Simonova painted in sand (see previous post) suddenly come to think of Péter Esterházy and Patrick Desbois?

A touching story it was; a story in which - as a commenter stated - she 'united a grief of our people [i.e. the Ukrainian people], and also glory and pride, especially the victory over fascism'; a touching patriotic story that won her the contest "Ukraine's got talent".
Now is her specific talent such great that the sand-paintress could have painted any story in the sand to win the equivalent of 125,000 dollar, would you agree?

Any story?

Would she have enthusiastically been awarded the winner, had she told a story about those Ukrainian countrymen who enthusiastically welcomed the invaders and joined them? Those Ukrainian countrymen who helped to humanly, i.e. not (!) bestialically* kill Jews and Sinti and other human beings they obviously also considered subhuman?

Do I hear anybody say this would not have been clever an idea?

Well, such kind of (hi)story would not fit to any nations glory, hm?

Human's got talent to repress certain unpleasant details.
Some human's got even talent to deny certain unpleasant details.

End of the beforegoing.

And now to the opening question. As for Patrick Desbois, just follow this link, and - in case you speak English, French and/or German you will understand why I came to think of him. You won't find anything in Russian and Ukrainian, though.

As for Péter Esterhazy: I felt reminded of one sentence in his aureate speech when in 2004 he was awarded the Peace Price of the German Book Trade. Basically he said: All European nations do love the Germans. Blaiming them does spare us to deal with our own history.

The peace of the night.


* I decided to spare you details; at least for now.

Frying the shammers

Oscar Wilde would have been delighted. Perhaps he is?



For those few who would not know Stephen Fry.

And here his blog which is - although not listed among them :) - seldom boring.

About democracy and tolerance

Some people would vehemently claim tolerance,

as long as they are not in the majority.

soliloquy, blooming A ... or so

Stream of consciousness. In a blogpost? Lovely. Ha ha ha ha. I am not Molly Bloom, hm? Ah, a Joycean. Nah. Although, in a way. Four times? Four times that I read the 'Ulysses'? Five times? Yes. Five times. I think. Gosh. Did I write 'Yes'? "Plagiarism!!!!!!!!!!", I hear them shout, the heirs of the late James Joyce. And: "One million cun ... err ... punts for a Yes!" Fastards. Bucking. Sucking honey from the dead. Can't even spell the German philosopher´s name correctly. Phonetically, alright. Kant. But. Anal Ivia Plurabelle. Language, Sir. Language! Language? Language = Ethic = Fairplay. Thierry Henry. God's hand. Frog's hand. To be fair: Would Robby Keane have beseeched the referee: "No goal, ref. No goal. I played the ball with my hands"? Hypocrisy. Punt. Pound. Euro. Guinea, Guinness. Guinnessis. Money money money. Mon(d)ey. Monday? It's Thursday, isn't it? Thirsty. Thuirsdy. Nah! Not what you think. I'm drinking warm milk with honey. Bloody cold. Hm. Interesting. Do they say it´s every six seconds a child, a woman, a man dies of starvation? After all there can't exist poverty, hm?! 1,3 trillions being sacrificed each year to defend enduring global freedom. Praised be the defence (sic) industry. Malnutrition. No. No! Not in this lovely little village. See this tree?

Click to enlarge

Apples. Lots of apples. In front of the pub. Public tree. No one cares. No one is hungry. Otherwise ... Tomorrow morning I shall go and pick them. Up. Winter's coming. Hm? The blackbirds love apples. In winter, anyway. Lovely to watch them. Creatures. Hungry. In Seanhenge they will find food. Always. Ah! Watching them in the morning. While smoking a first cigarette on balcony. Phewwwwwwww! Smoking? Yep. Gosh, in the last moment. One ought always to have Mr Joyce's heirs in one's mind. Not to forget my former finance minister who when in 2003 once again raising the tobacco tax let me know that the more I smoke the more I support the 'war on terror', while the health minister ... Fucking hypocrites!! Sorry about this tiny aprosdoketon. There is something rotten ... not only ... in the state of ... Israel. I mean not only Joyce's heirs one ought to have in one's mind, but the peace-loving people of Israel, too. This sounds kafkaesque? Well, si. Mr Kafka(´s work) is national heritage, isn't he? National heritage? Well, at least heritage of the state of Israel, hm? After all, Kafka died only 24 years before Ben Gurion proclaimed a state of Israel. Shshhhhhh! A German ought not to write such naughty things. That's anti-semitism. Each Arab, Maltese etc. will get infuriated. Won't he? Not to speak of her. And what did the friendly looking elderly Turk in Bremen say three or four years ago when being asked about a most suprising campaign, in which the Turkish tabloid Hurriyet tried to elucidate that women are human beings, too, and that it's not nice to beat one's wife, at least not on a daily basis? "A man who does not beat his wife is not a man."
Ah, nuff written. What one cometh to think of within but a few minutes! Time to fall into the feathers, put my head on the pillow and have a dream: All semites and other machos with immediate effect do veil their faces up til infinity ... yes ... and walk four steps behind their wives ... yes ... when lugging the shopping bags. Yes.
The peace of the night.

On celebrating remembrance

It's Remembrance Day.

I do it my way.

Controversial opinions ought not to be islands, hm? :)

To make it easy, though, in times of organised stupidity, when victims of a psychotic alienist (sic!) are getting praised as heroes*, just two links to posts about the matter.

Herewith I declare the bazaar - err - the discussion open.

Help yourself.

The red poppy signifies the yearly charade of concern for the UK's war dead and wounded is upon us.


At the going down of the sun ...
and in the morning, we will remember them.

Today 48 years ago

Ms Clinton goes Congo

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded an end to widespread sexual abuse in war-ravaged eastern DR Congo, during a visit to the country.
Continued here.

Back?
Fine.
And?
Interesting, hm?
And horrible, alone if you imagine ...

Well, and certainly you remember this passage:

The BBC's Will Ross, in Nairobi, says perpetrators go unpunished and that sexual attacks have increased since January, when a government offensive [emphasis mine] was launched against rebels linked to Rwanda's genocide.

What the BBC (-man) does not tell you will find in a Washington Post article under following headline:

Congo's Rape Epidemic Worsens During U.S.-Backed Military Operation

Sic! U.S.-Backed Military Operation.

Or should it rather read:

[...] U.S. Mercenary-backed ...] ?

Or:

[...] Blackwater-Led ...] ?

Anyway, here is Stephanie McCrummen's article, upon which I stumbled after having stumbled upon The Angry Arab.


Related post:
As I see it

Any time I see ...

A tragedy, Mr Erdoğan is so utterly stupid

Turkey's prime minister has described ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region as "a kind of genocide".
"There is no other way of commenting on this event," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
He spoke after a night-time curfew was reimposed in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, where Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese clashed last Sunday.
The death toll from the violence there has now risen from 156 to 184, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reports. More than 1,000 people were injured.
Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs in China's western-most region.
Full BBC-article here.

This is most interesting. What happened to Armenians in the Ottoman era, thus before the Turkish Republic was founded, Erdoğan Effendi - sic! ha ha ha - would call "a tragedy", and his Magnificent Stupidity would feel insulted by those who would call a genocide a genocide.

What a ... oh, well - to be continued ...

Meanwhile you might like to read some post which are corroborating this post's title.
Cave Cihan, Mr Erdoğan!

Considerably exaggerated

Does article 301 apply to Erdoğan?

Mozart's homage to Erdogan

Cash as cash can ...

[...]
European agriculture ministers approved the sale of milk and meat from the direct offspring of cloned animals on Monday. Germany had long opposed the move, but finally changed its position.

Full article here.

Well, and in case you do not already know where once again corks will be popping - just check amongst the labels for this post.

Gap is widening

Well, actually it's no news that the gap between rich and poor is widening. Those who have eyes to read, ears to hear and a tiny bit capacity for remembering will know that this 'metapher' in 25 years has become a set phrase, being repeated every now and then.
In so far it's one of those 'news' of which I think with Thoreau a ready wit might have written it a twelve months or twelve years beforehand with sufficient accuracy.

Anyway, for those few on this planet who still consider Germany a land where milk and honey flows.

A new study by a German welfare organization shows that the gap between rich and poor is widening in the country, with the east and northwest lagging clearly behind the south.

Full article here.

A statue for Gülsüm!

A cow in the village of Kadiruşağı in the eastern province of Malatya has been sent to a neighboring village because its owner feared she would be punished for the animal knocking down a statue (of Atatürk; Omnium) in the local schoolyard.

The accident caused the local education department to launch a formal inquiry into the matter, frightening the cow’s owner, Gül Kılınç, who said she had sold the animal, named Gülsüm, to a friend in the neighboring village of İnekpınarı to wait out the inquiry.
[...] "Officials came and took our testimony. Almost every member of the village was questioned"* [...].

* emphasise mine

More about this absolutely shocking incident at Hürriyet.

As Turkishness is unrivalled, I do fear this cow is a poor sow.

It might be interesting, though, to interview her and the author or journalist, Gülsüm might soon share a prison cell with.


Meanwhile, in a poll amongst cows worldwide, 99,98 percent mooed:
"A statue for Gülsüm!



Related articles (warmly commended):
Spreading Mr. Kemal's news (Part I of an exclusive interview with the late Atatürk)

Just to increase my stats

Gardening, flowers, (romantic) poems, 'sweet' songs (of love) ... oh, what a boring apolitic blog Omnium has become - some readers might think...

... perhaps -? :) - not thinking of that everything is politics;

... perhaps - ? :) - not being aware that it is politics saying: I don't care about politics'.

End of the beforegoing.

As everybody knows I am just crazy about my stats. Absolutely crazy. 90 percent of my time I am thinking of my stats. Gosh, Jesus, Allah, Montezuma, Buddha, Venus, all gods I don't mention ... and not to forget the devine head of a dead sardine - care for my stats.

It's why I am linking to billions of blogs, visit each hour millions of them and leave myriads of comments ... such as: Wonderful! Brilliant! Nicely put! Love it! Aww, gorgeous! Amazing! etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum ...

and not to forget: would be sssoooo lovely if you found time to visit my wonderful ... eh humble blog.
Lots of love, Yours ...

End of the beforegoing.

Back to the stats I am such crazy about.
For weeks - ah what am I saying? - for months ! they have been decreasing. And that's only why the watchdogs of Monsanto are obviously thinking 'another idiot's resignating'.

Ah, gentle(wo)men: How could I risk your jobs. Forgive me, please?

You see, I thought it's only fair to give a certain President some days more than one hundred to prove that eloquency which by a credulous majority is easily taken for charisma, can be as dangerous and evil as what an imbecile son of a former evil babbit that managed / was chosen to become President of the most wonderful of all wonderful countries, could ever babble.

End of the beforegoing.

To slowly ... very slowly ... enure readers what might - if I feel like :) - (again) become a topic on at of Omnium - ah those prepositions! -, here's for a very tiny warm-up.

Maybe I am going to feel fancy to ask the most honourable Mr. Obama what he has been doing about those bucking fastards in his country during the past 100 + X days.
May be there will some other questions been asked.

Yes, I can!

Such questions won't change anything, you say?

:)

Quite. But isn't is a pleasure to call liars liars, and greedy bastards greedy bastards?

And now imagine: Those greedy bastards - most of them at least any Sunday showing sanctimoneously presence in the church of their choice ... convert to Islam / Judaism / Buddhism/ Hinduism / start worshipping the head of a dead sardine ...

Now, that would help to save the planet!

The peace of the night.

The Taoiseach's New Clothes

Recently Jams O'Donnell Esq. exhibited artist Uglow's euphemising painting of an ugly woman (photo above). Would any Bobby have interfered? No. Neither has the painting been confiscated, nor's an investigation into the matter under way. Well, the English police might have other things to do.

Same with the German physicist who would unfortunately give up her job in order to become Chancellor.
Neither has the police confiscated umteen millions of euphemising Barbie-Angelas nor any other more realistic art work.


One might wonder what (other things), but anyway, like the English police the German police seem to have other things to do.

Not so the Irish police. They have - as everybody knows - absolutely nothing to do except of calming down the enthusiasm of the plain Irish people when it comes to celebrate their beloved leaders' altruism and wisdom.
Well, another evidence you might draw from yesterday's post.

Which is why today the BBC could tell the rest of the world that, apparently alarmed by the authorities (sic) of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin* there is an investigation [...] under way, according the provenience of two paintings that for lack of knowing its official title I tend to introduce as The Taoiseach's New Clothes.


Glad to learn the Irish police after all seem to feel they have something worthwhile to do, after clicking the 'publish'-button I shall start to count my Zimbabwian Dollars, as I am determined to buy the 'The Taoiseach's New Clothes' which happened to be found gracing a wall of the toilet inside the National Gallery.

* Interesting, by the way, to have a glimpse at the BBC's url: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7960997.stm


Follow-ups:

The Taoiseach's New Clothes II

Brian, Borges & Bioy

Want a T(aoiseach)-Shirt?

Physiognomy of fine gentlemen

The Impossible Fact (Variation)

When authorities have no authority

Within less than seven minutes, in February German TV-vievers this feature of Limerick learnt (a lot), for instance this:

With 1 (in words: one) boat the Irish custom authorities [by the way, an interesting word, authorities] is determined to control 6,000 kilometres coast.

Confiscating cocain amounting to 500 million Euro is thought to be one tenth of the total amount that's being smuggled.

You will see a member of the so-called Dundan Clan (Jimmy Collins), brashly giving an interview, boasting about that 'police can't stop us'.
Obviously, as there happen more murder per capita than in any other town in Europe.

You will see the coffin of Shane Geoghegan who was 'accidently' murdered.
To learn more I commend to read Bock the Robber's posts and their echoes in the comment-section(s).

You will see a lawyer saying "They {the police] don't know who is going to get killed next. The clans are very powerful." The homes of people who would go to police and make an accuse use to be burnt out and their families terrorised. "Its better to keep one's mouth closed than to end up in a grave."

What a shame.


PS: While writing this I hear that the Russian mafia has ousted the German pimps in most German cities, that their bosses f.e. in Berlin are celebrating in Five star SUPERIOR (sic!) hotels with their worldwide 'business partners'; that politicians in Europe and especially in Germany do not underestimate this threat, but just don't have any clue what's going on.

Now, if that's not comforting. The decent people of Limerick don't stand alone.

Good night, and good luck.