today, 2 things:
1.
Under the headline "Velida wasnt thin enough" in todays edition of Politiken, Rikke "sympathy doesnt count and I wouldnt piss on you if your face caught fire" Hvilshøj, elaborates on the deportation of 30 year old Velida Cekovic. Elaborating is maybe saying too much. She basicly says what I refered to yesterday, that she cannot personalize sympathy for single-cases. Or: had Velida Cekovic had a bodyweight less than the 84 pound that is the case, that wouldnt have help either. Velida is now straded in Bosnia without relatives, but with her kids, no medical care, and is accordingly to Politiken: "eight pounds from dying..."
Does helping her really demand sympathy? Maybe not, but dignity could be a nice try...

2.
My photo-documentary from Thailand "Symbols of Migration" is opening next week:
Feel free to join the opening at monday 19.11 at 1400h @ the Teachercollege, Reberbanen, Viborg.

We will drink wine and eat pretzels and choke on the historic conditions.

sympathy for the devil

Once again, on the news (TV2) last night (my days of not watching TV is fading) Danish minister of integration Rikke “sympathy doenst count and I wouldn’t piss on you if your face caught fire” Hvilshøj was being interviewed, in front of her yellow brick villa in the charming surburb of Greve, about yet another case of a troublesome deportation from Denmark of a kosovo-albanian mother of two. I didn’t get all the details of the case in question, and that isn’t the point here either. The minister answered with the exact same phrases as when 15 year old sri-lankian orphan Rem, about three weeks ago was faced with deportation. The public debate got heated over his situation, and to no surprise he was granted permission to stay. Which he absolutely deserved, as does the kosovo-albanian mother of two.

However, the cases constitutes a problem, that in particular points back at the media-machinery. The TV2 reproter, Cecelie Beck, kept hammering the minister with one question: “Is it humane? Is it humane? Is it humane?”, to which Rikke “sympathy doesn’t count and I wouldn’t piss on you if your face caught fire” Hvilshøj answered, as always, that one law, one rule, applies for everyone, and that theres is no room for single-cases. Bullshit I say. Every case of a potential deportation is a single case, and the answer just shows the government lack of political will and tendency to treat these issues with the generalizing approach: One size fits all.

On the other side of bad news for a good story, sits 600 iraqian rejected asylum-seekers in Danish asylum-centers in total limbo. Politicians from the opposition is trying ease the pain for them, by introducing law-proposals that will allow them to work while they await a verdict, while the absolute horror, I think, goes totally unnoticed: Not one politician, or media, and in particular TV, seems to point out the dilemma of sending 600 iraqians home to a country in which Denmark is very active in war.

But the case is clear: sympathy doesn’t count. Close the door.

501:

Rightfully also celebrating the outcome of theMidterm election in the US which turned out to be the landslide, they had coming. Also celebrating stepped down DonaldsRumsfeld with this little collection of highly enternaing quotes mirroring the depth and shallowness of a powerfull Warlord:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6130316.stm

500.

"Corporations are racing to stake their claim on the consumer group formerly known as children, and what was once a preview of a few entertainment and toy companies has now escsalated into a gargantuan multitentacled enterprise with a combined marketing budget estimated at 15 billion dollars annually (2004: US figures) about 2,5 times more than was spent i 1992. Children are the darlings of Corporate America: a new kind of paedophila."

Well, what should have been another small celebration here at NOASRP, as this is my posting number fivehundred: That is equal to 19, 23 postings a month, which equals 0,6 posting a day over the last two years and some days, (yes, I am a sad little self-celebrating cocksucker),
turns out to be another aggresive and somewhat pessimistic posting. The link to the article today only serves to elaborate and emphasizes the quotation above, sampled from, yes own blog on november 29, 2004. (yes, I am a selfcelebrating little shit).

The Citizen has become The Consumer. And consumptiom on top of every bill of rights.

http://politiken.dk/indland/article197503.ece

yesterday I went to see Alejandro González Iñárritu new flick BABEL. Having seen more of his work, of which I especially enjoyed AMORRES PERROS, I was slightly disappointet with BABEL. Clearly 30 minutes to long, it, in spite of the issues and personal downfall in the movie, never really got to me. It seemed too contructed, and the paralel stories to easy, allthough the story of the deaf and numb girl lost by lack of communication in Tokyo came out really good, closer to me, but further from the movie.

Anyway the photage and the soundtrack was great, but bacisly it was more movie that confirmed the states of things than putting forward provoking og controversial interpretations of the state of El Mundo, which I definitely expect from a 135 minutes production.

mixed message








four headlines in different newpapers made a lasting impression on me over he last week.

1: a recent pole shows that one in every fifth dane now is pro capital punishment, aka: the mercy seat.
the positive attitude towards solving the crime issues with DEATH, was predominantly distinct among the ranks and voters, for and of DANSK FOLKEPARTI, the lesser educated, and readers of danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet. That itself didnt surprise. The surprise is the actual number of people pro-death. Over a period of 5 years it has more than doubled. The bitterness, the animosity just adds to the picture of a country, of people imploding in them selves: Close the door after me, I have what I want.

2: that more than 50% of DK population seems to agree that the coming execution of Saddam Hussein only just fits the crimes he commited. Its gonna be a stunningly hardhitter, once the the happy slapping of Saddam hits the internet... Remember the aired freak trial of Ceaucesco?

3: Let him rot in jail for 40.000 years, which was the official verdict on the convicted Madrid terror-bombers. Understable, the rage in mind, but do-able? What strange sense of justice.

4: the reoccuring massive headlinelines on tabloid newspapers BT and Ekstra Bladet, which in particular refers to the TV2.dk primetime show VILD MED DANS. How the f... can two adjascent newspaper with just a little ethics let references to a f...... tv program to make headlines? And how it applies and goes down well, I refer to the abovementioned (1).

I havnt seen BORAT: The Movie http://www.boratmovie.com/ yet. I plan to.

But have you seen this, the real mccoy?
http://www.istanbul.tc/mahir/mahir/

The Clayton Brothers: The Most special day of my life.













today,
three immensely positive newsflashes from the past week: my days of social nadir has definitely evaporated. This week I attended no less than two movie-premiers. That’s like…so much up the ladder, the height is almost frightening.
On Wednesday, by rubbernecking on the means, tolls and networking of Swedish novelist Jakob Ejersbo I attended the opening night of Ole Christian Madsen newest film, “Prag” starring Stine Stengade and the omnipresent frenzy of Mads Mikkelsen.

The film: Christopher (Mads Mikkelsen) has been summoned To Prague to bring home the corpse of his deceased father, with whom he havnt had any contact for 25 years. Simultaneously his marriage with Maja (Stine Stengade) is running dry, as Christopher confronts her with the inescapable fact, that he knows she is having a very intimate affair with a younger man.
Shot on location over 24 days in Prague, the city serves as a perfect kafkaesque backdrop for the narrative that unravels. At first impressions it seems that Christopher is willing to do everything to save their marriage, but the closer he gets to the full story of his father life of which he knew nothing, and to which he is caught somewhere between indifference and hate, the more he seems to acknowledge that his marriage is over, and that he wants it to be over as much as Maja. It doesn’t go about without intense drama in really well played low-fi scenes, and the dialogue is as tense, honest and emphasizes the absence of choice, except for the final break up.
Stengade and Mikkelsen are playing each their character with great integrity and credibility, and it is clear in the direction of the movie, that O.C Madsen has great and equally sympathy for both Christopher and Maja. It stands out that the director knows the story well and it is told with the twists, dilemmas and desperation that I can only imagine is the cold reality of a break-up and he clearly avoids the clichés at hand.
Also I find it clear that he states that The Modern, do offer an “afterlife”, and that there are reasons not to underestimate and respect the family structures and cultures that emerges and constructs, following the rising numbers of first family break ups.

http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Christian_Madsen

On Friday I attended the premier of four movies at Cinematekets sneak bar. The first 3 were not the best I have seen, mostly they came out as dramatized jokes, that all were 17 minutes too long. On the other hand, the last movie of the night: “Hvordan de danser” (How they dance) by Jesper Ravn came out clear as daylight.
An almost anthropological short-film depicturing four average danes, chosen among hundreds, to perform a dance to their favourite tune.
The performances of a slightly overweight 34 year female old school-teacher, doing booty-shakes and hard choreopgraphy to a Beyoncè Knowles hit, the 50-something year old male århus-based gartner and American doing a spectacular anachronistic dance in flip-flops whilst undoing and doing his ponytail to a latino-up beat tune, the 35 year old male writer and in many ways bookkeeper in a crossover between electric boogie, elvis-moves and just pure emancipation in top shined shoes and footwork to Desmond Dekker`s “The Israelites”, and finally the 17 year old female from Århus, doing it in front of flames to “Relight my fire..” was nothing less than a brilliantly sympahtetic and honest film.

http://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/Cinemateket.htm

Then this morning, the long awaited package from Amazon arrived with the Book (see picture, top): “The most special day of my Life” by artist brothers Clayton.
The Clayton Brothers do very narrative, autobiographical, surreal and ethereal and subliminal paintings: From memories of surburban decay coated with irony and humble truths.

The site
www.claytonbrothers.com

good fun for a boring day at the office: subtitle your own movie at bombay tv.

klikken sie hier
www.grapheine.com

now its dark, and winter came with the precision of a neurotic arctic clockwork...