HAPPY NEW YEAR from BERLIN 2013

“A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.” 
― Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

The Holocaust Memorial, Berlin, Germany

The mirrored cone at the center of the Reichstag building dome, Berlin, Germany

The Reichstag building dome, Berlin, Germany

HAPPY NEW YEAR from BERLIN, GERMANY 2013

A good review of the art scene in Kuwait for 2012

Abdulaziz Al-Humaidhi's work from “Out of Kuwait” at the Museum of Modern Art

A very good review of the art scene in Kuwait:

Kuwait: Top 10 Art Projects and Exhibitions in 2012 Posted: 29 Dec 2012 01:00 AM PST It is the 2nd annual selection of the best art exhibitions and events in Kuwait (see the previous one). If in 2011 it was important to see and try to feature all art events in Kuwait, in 2012 we had an aim to distinguish the quality of the presented art as well as the idea of the exhibition itself, that’s why less photo coverages were done even if the quantity of art events has increased. From ART KUWAIT

lecture by Antoni Muntadas, Artist and Professor of Practice - MIT, Dec. 30, 7pm

Muntdas, On Translation: El Aplauso, Bogota, 1990 
Courtesy of the artist

The National Council for Culture, Art, and Letters welcomes you to join us for the soft-launch of our lecture series, Al thuluth Al akheer.

Date: Sunday December 30thTime: 7:00pm
Location: Qibliya (directions pasted below)
Speaker: Antoni Muntadas, Artist and Professor of Practice - MIT

Moderator(s): Alia Farid Abdal + Zahra Ali Baba

Introduction by: Abdullah Al Harmi

Projects and Protocols: Conventions on Art and Technology

Muntadas’ work addresses social, political and communications issues concerning the relationship between public and private space within specific social frameworks, and investigates channels of information and the ways these may be used to extinguish or promulgate ideas. His projects are presented in different media such as photography, video, publications, the Internet, installations, and urban interventions. Muntadas has received numerous awards and grants, and his work has been exhibited extensively; at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée d’Art Contemporaine, Montreal; Berkeley Art Museum; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; the VI and X editions of documenta, Kassel; the Whitney Biennial of American Art, New York; and the 51st Venice Biennial. More recent shows include his exhibition at NCCA in Moscow, Russia, at the The Bronx Museum in New York, and a retrospective, Muntadas: Entre/Between, which culminated last March at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Please join us for a presentation by the artist (visiting Kuwait for the first time) followed by a discussion on the importance of developing cultural infrastructures inside hegemonic order. 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Educational+Materials+Dept%2C+Kuwait+City&hl=en&ll=29.376304%2C47.971308&spn=0.01092%2C0.020835&sll=29.374481%2C47.968267&sspn=0.00273%2C0.005209&t=h&hq=Educational+Materials+Dept%2C&hnear=Kuwait+City%2C+Al+Asimah%2C+Kuwait&z=16&iwloc=A

Merry Christmas from Berlin!

My dear old friend Jimmy from Taiwan cooked wonderful Chinese food for our Christmas dinner in Berlin and I made many new friends!  Thank you Jimmy and Merry Christmas to all!

an ironic "Guardian Christmas screensaver" by Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei's ironic homage to Chinese "door god prints" to be used as a screensaver.  Like the "door god prints," that are traditionally hung on doors in China to ward off evil, this "Guardian Christmas screensaver," put on your computer, is supposed to "ward off the evil river crabs" ( "river crabs" is internet slang created by Chinese netizens in reference to Internet censorship or the other censorship of China. In Chinese Mandarin, the word "River crab" (河蟹), which originally means Chinese mitten crab, sounds similar to "Harmonious/Harmonize/Harmonization" (Chinese: 和谐) in the word "Harmonious society" (和谐社会), Chinese leader Hu Jintao's signature ideology).

Also pictured are the "Grass Mud Horses" or Cǎonímǎ (草泥马), is a Chinese Internet meme widely used as a form of symbolic defiance of the widespread Internet censorship in China. It is a play on the Mandarin language words Cǎonímǎ (肏你妈) (I actually can't tell you what that means in English or it sets off the censorship blockers here in Kuwait! but if you click on the links it is easy to see), and is one of the so-called 10 mythical creatures created in a hoax article on Baidu Baike in early 2009 whose names form obscene puns. It has become an Internet chat forum cult phenomenon in China and has garnered world-wide press attention, with videos, cartoons and merchandise of the animal (which is said to resemble the alpaca), having appeared.

What Sandy Hook taught us about teachers

Link to original post by Chan Lowe (click here)

The cartoonist Chan Lowe created this image and wrote the following: "As the nation wades into parallel and interconnected discussions about gun rights, mental illness and the culture of violence in this country, we should also be considering a topic no less related to the Connecticut school tragedy: Are we doing right by our teachers?

Never has the dedication of the people who practice the teaching profession been spotlighted in the way it has over the past few days. We were shown, in dramatic terms, to what lengths teachers are willing to go to fulfill the crucial mandate they have been given: the education and welfare of the most precious members of our society. Yet they are so often treated with disdain.

Teaching is a calling. Not everyone has the will or the stamina to do it well. It takes love, pride, and an almost sacred commitment that can't be explained in words. In America, teachers have traditionally been underpaid, because in America's early communities, "schoolmarms" were always spinsters who were not expected to support families.

In other countries, the teaching profession is considered so noble that it is well paid in comparison to many other professions, as it should be. In this country, politicians—acting as proxies for taxpayers—haggle with, lowball, denigrate and harass teachers as if their demands for job security and decent pay are unreasonable and selfish.

A teacher invests in the future, student by student, and his or her legacy consists of the product of those students' fertile minds. Occasionally, teachers are even called upon to throw themselves into harm's way to protect the lives of their charges as if they were their own children—and last week six of them demonstrated most profoundly that they do not shrink from the task. About this, no one can argue.

So, who deserves to be paid more, and what does the reality tell us about our priorities?"

TIME's Person of the Year, from 1927 to 2011 (and 2012?)

We will soon find out TIME's 2012 Person of the Year! (click here)

TIME's Person of the Year, from 1927 to 2011

Very enlightening to look back and see who they have picked for every year all the way back to 1927 (click here)

Crazy Guy + Gun = 26 Dead vs. Crazy Guy + Knife = No Dead

So many right wingers have been trying to use the example of the school attack in China as a reason to say, "Attacks will happen anyway, so what difference does it make whether or not we have stricter gun laws?"

I guess they don't see any difference between children who are alive and children who are not.

Recurring Demonstrations in Kuwait

Associated Press/Gustavo Ferrari - Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition groups gather to protest the Kuwait government's amendment of the electoral law and support a boycott on the country's election on Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 in Kuwait City. More than 15,000 protesters rallied in the first government-authorized demonstration in Kuwait since a ban on political gatherings earlier this month. The election to be held Saturday, Dec. 1 is the fifth since mid-2006, and the second this year.(AP Photo/Gustavo Ferrari) 

U.S. Embassy Kuwait

Kuwait City, Kuwait

December 13, 2012

                              

Subject:           Security Message for U.S. Citizens:  18-2012

Recurring Demonstrations in Kuwait

According to media reports, there are calls for a number of recurring demonstrations and marches throughout the month of December.  Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.  An increased police and security presence may be expected during marches and demonstrations.   Please avoid areas where demonstrations occur or are planned and exercise caution if within the vicinity of any large gatherings.  Stay current with media coverage of local events, be aware of your surroundings, and practice personal security awareness at all times.  Please note that participation in demonstrations by non-citizens is against the law in Kuwait.

Demonstrations may be announced or spontaneous.  They may begin in specific neighborhoods, and then spill over to other areas. 

The Embassy will continue to provide updates as to location and time of demonstrations as information becomes available.  Please continue to monitor the Embassy’s website for the latest available information.  For the latest demonstration notice, please click here.

As of December 12, 2012, recent nighttime demonstrations have taken place in the following areas and may continue there:

·         Ahmadi

·         Al Reqa

·         Al Sabahiya

·         Fahaheel

·         Mangaf

·         Sabah Al Nasser

·         Jahra 

A separate call for afternoon marches every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday in the following neighborhoods has been made:

·         Taima

·         Sulaibiya

·         Ahmadi

U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at the following website: https://step.state.gov. U.S. citizens without internet access may enroll directly at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate at their destination.  By enrolling, U.S. citizens make it easier for the Embassy to contact them in case of emergency.

Updated information on travel and security may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.  These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).   For further information, please consult the Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website athttp://travel.state.gov where the Worldwide Caution and Country Specific Information can be found.  In addition, the Embassy encourages U.S. citizens to review "A Safe Trip Abroad," which includes valuable security information for those traveling or living in foreign countries.  You can also follow the Bureau of Consular Affairs on Twitter and on Facebook and download our free Smart Traveler App available through iTunes and the Android market to have travel information at your fingertips.

The U.S. Embassy is located at Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa Street, Block 6, Plot 14, Bayan, Kuwait.  If you are a U.S. citizen in need of emergency assistance in Kuwait, you may reach the U.S. Embassy by calling +965-2259-1001 and requesting the duty officer. 

This message may be accessed on the Embassy website, http://kuwait.usembassy.gov.

Please note that the Consular Section is closed for U.S. and most local holidays.  The current holiday schedule for 2012 is posted on http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/holidays.html.

12:12:12 on 12-12-12

MAKE A WISH!  Nothing like this will likely happen again in your lifetime! 

Possible Demonstrations in Kuwait – December 10, 2012

Kuwait City, Kuwait

December 10, 2012

Subject:           Demonstration Notice 22-2012

Possible Demonstrations in Kuwait – December 10, 2012

According to media reports, there will be demonstrations on December 10, 2012, in multiple locations, including Taima, Ahmadi, Sulaibiya, al-Hasawi, Sabah Al-Nasser, and Al-Sabahiya. An increased police and security presence is expected.

Spontaneous and planned demonstrations take place in Kuwait from time to time in response to world events or local developments.  At times, even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence.  Please avoid areas where demonstrations occur or are planned and exercise caution if within the vicinity of any large gatherings.  Please stay current with media coverage of local events, be aware of your surroundings, and practice personal security awareness at all times.  

U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at the following website: https://step.state.gov. U.S. citizens without internet access may enroll directly at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate at their destination.  By enrolling, U.S. citizens make it easier for the Embassy to contact them in case of emergency.

Updated information on travel and security may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.  These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).   For further information, please consult the Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov where the Worldwide Caution and Country Specific Informationcan be found.  In addition, the Embassy encourages U.S. citizens to review "A Safe Trip Abroad," which includes valuable security information for those traveling or living in foreign countries.  You can also follow the Bureau of Consular Affairs on Twitter and on Facebook. 

The U.S. Embassy is located at Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa Street, Block 6, Plot 14, Bayan, Kuwait.  If you are a U.S. citizen in need of emergency assistance in Kuwait, you may reach the U.S. Embassy by calling +965-2259-1001 and requesting the duty officer. 

This message may be accessed on the Embassy website, http://kuwait.usembassy.gov.

Please note that the Consular Section is closed for U.S. and most local holidays.  The current holiday schedule for 2012 is posted on http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/holidays.html.

Please join Solidarity with Tibet

Please join us as we stand in Solidarity with Tibet on the occasion of Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2012. Everyone around the world can attend this virtual event, so invite your friends. https://www.facebook.com/events/539586492737526/

The situation in Tibet is worsening daily under the oppressive grip of the government of the People’s Republic of China. It is time to stand in solidarity with

 Tibetans and their struggle for human rights. www.solidaritywithtibet.org

How to attend the virtual event on 10 December 2012:

(1) Update your profile picture on Facebook to the "Solidarity with Tibet 10 DEC 2012" image, which you can find below.

(2) Post a status on Facebook containing the words “Solidarity with Tibet” and set the location of your status to Lhasa, Tibet: Potala Palace, Lhasa.

(3) Join our Thunderclap! We have partnered with Thunderclap, so that our message will be heard loud and clear around the world on 10 December 2012 (Human Rights Day). Please support our Thunderclap with your Facebook and/or Twitter account(s), and we will all share a synchronized message of #SolidarityWithTibet on 10 Dec. Help us reach our goal of 500 supporters by signing up now at https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/758-stand-in-solidarity-with-tibet.

Two new self-immolations in Tibet today, December 8, 2012

Two new self-immolations in Tibet today, December 8, 2012 : First, in Luchu, Gansu province in Amdo, his name is Pedma Dorje, and he is 23 years old.

སྤྱི་ལོ༢༠༡༢ལོའི་ཧོར་ཟླ༡༠པའི་ཚེས༢༥ཉིན་ལ ཀན་ལྷོ་ཀླུ་ཆུའི་ཤིས་ཚང་ཚོ་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ཁོངས་གཏོགས་ཆོས་འཁོར་སྡེ་བའི་རྒྱལ་གཅེས་དཔའ་བོ་པདྨ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལགས་ཀྱིས་དེ་རིང་ཕྱི་དྲོ་ཆུ་ཚོད༤:༣༥ཡས་མས་སུ་མདོ་སྨད་ཆོས་སྡེ་ཆེན་མོ་ཤིས་ཚང་དགོན་པའི་འདུ་ཁང་སྒོ་ནས་རང་ལུས་མེ་མཆོད་འབུལ་བས་སྐུ་གྲོངས་འདུག དགུང་ལོ་ཉེར་གསུམ་རེད་ཟེར

Breaking: Burning Tibetan calls for independence, Two self-immolations in a day...

Two new self-immolations today, December 8, 2012 :
The second is a monk Kunchok Phelgye, who self-immolated in Ngaba at arrond 3-4 PM local time asking to allow

 the retourn of HH Dalai Lama to Tibet.
གཞན་དེ་རིང་བོད་ནང་གི་དུས་ཚོད་༤ཡས་མུས་སུ་རྔ་བ་རྐིརཏི་དགོན་པའི་གྲྭ་འཕེལ་རྒྱས་ལགས་ཡང་རང་མེར་མཆོད་ཀྱི་གནས་བྱུང་འདུག

Breaking: Burning Tibetan calls for independence, Two self-immolations in a day...

Kunchok Phelgye, a 24-year-old-monk from the Sumdo Monastery in Dzoege region of eastern Tibet passed away in his self-immolation protest today. The exile base 

of the Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, in a release, said that Kunchok Phelgye set himself on fire in front of the main assembly hall of the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery at around 5:20 pm (local time). “Kunchok Phelgye was enveloped in flames and his hands were joined in prayers as he raised slogans for the long life and return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the exiled head of Kirti Monastery,” the release said citing sources in the region. “He also raised slogans calling for the return and reunification of Tibetans.” Kunchok Phelgye succumbed to his injuries at the site of his protest. Monks of the Monastery surrounded Kunchok Phelgye’s burning body and began to recite the prayer, “Losang Gyalwa Kungi Nyingje Ter…” (usually recited in Kirti Rinpoche’s honour). Later, Kunchok Phelgye’s body was carried to his quarters in the Monastery where hundreds of monks and local Tibetans continue to visit to offer their last respects and prayers.

AUK presents "THE ODD COUPLE"

Went to the opening performance last night and the students did a wonderful job!  Still three more performances... SEE IT!  

Take Five Dave Brubeck, may you rest in peace…

Dave Brubeck, the U.S. pianist and composer whose quartet produced the first jazz album that sold more than 1 million copies and was best known for the melodic composition “Take Five,” has died. He was 91.

Mr. Brubeck once explained succinctly what jazz meant to him. “One of the reasons I believe in jazz,” he said, “is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born — or before you’re born — and it’s the last thing you hear.” (from today's NYT)

see cool video of Take Five here