AFTER THE GAMES ARE OVER, II: ON THE EVE OF SOCHI, REMAINS OF AN OLYMPICS PAST

AFTER THE CIRCUS 

HAS LEFT TOWN II 

BEJING OLYMPIC PARK

WITH TORCH 

AFTER THE GAMES ARE OVER: ONE WEEK TILL THE 2014 OLYMPICS

AFTER THE 

CIRCUS 

HAS LEFT TOWN 

"WELCOME TO BEJING OLYMPIC PARK" 

THE SIGN SAYS; 

"SECURITY CHECK" 

The Summer Olympics were held in China in August 2008; the photograph was taken after another major multi-day event, the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China, in October 2012. 

What will become of the Olympic venues for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, due begin this February 7? Vladimir Putin has scheduled the G8 summit for Sochi this June. 

THE CHURCH AT NIGHT

FIGURES IN 

THE SPIRE 

NIGHTTIME LIGHTS 

ON THE 

JAKARTA CATHEDRAL 

JAVA, INDONESIA 

Some diagrammatic representations 

of the Jakarta Cathedral, here 

PUTIN TELLS THE EUROPEAN UNION: HANDS OFF UKRAINE (WOULD BE GOOD)

THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT 
WOULD LIKE TO 

DECLARE UKRAINE 

A NO-GO ZONE 

FOR THE EU 

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN 

The Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was offering concessions to the Opposition today as Vladimir Putin was having a truncated summit with the European Union (the EU's way of showing its displeasure was to cancel a formal dinner). 

The EU was apparently going to keep going to Ukraine anyway. And Russia may or may not give the $15 billion aid package it promised Yanukovych even if the opposition takes power. It was said that both sides seemed to want to play up the positives. 

Accounts of the Russia-EU summit and the new developments in Ukraine can be found here and here and here and here. 

NINETY YEARS SINCE LENIN'S BODY WAS FIRST PUT ON DISPLAY

LENIN'S FIRST 

MAUSOLEUM 

ERECTED 

January 27, 1924 

SPECTATORS AT 

VLADIMIR LENIN'S TOMB 

Red Square, Moscow, 1984 

Six days after Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin died on January 21, 1924, his body was placed in a wooden mausoleum on Red Square.  The permanent monument was installed in 1930. Sixty years and some months after Lenin's death, I made my first visit to the USSR, and joined the procession going past the embalmed body; the photograph above was made then, in the summer of 1984. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, there have been periodic calls to find another burying place for the iconic Soviet leader (Stalin's body, which joined Lenin's after his death in 1953, having been removed long ago now). 

But, instead, in 2012 the mausoleum was closed for a re-do, re-opened the following spring.  And six days ago, pilgrims came to mark the ninetieth anniversary of Lenin's death. 

A vivid diagrammatic sketch of the mausoleum is here; a glimpse of the body and a quick look at the inside of the tomb can be found in a short video, here, with additional information here. 

A photograph of the former changing of the guards ceremony is here; another view of the mausoleum, here. 

JEREMY RIFKIN IS SIXTY-NINE

JEREMY RIFKIN 

b. January 26, 1945 

Published in BUSINESS WEEK 
September 8, 1980, p. 12 

in a review of ENTROPY 
by Jeremy Rifkin with Ted Howard 
Review by Michael G. Sheldrick 
("Watching the world run out of resources") 

Author and activist and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Rifkin has alternatively been called a "futurist" and a "failed futurist." His website is here, and a list his books, here. A review of his most recent book, The Empathetic Civilization, is here. 

THREE FACES, THREE MASKS?

A BIT OF 
BATIK ART 

from 
Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

BIG EARS & METADATA

BECAUSE WE CAN? 

II 

MICROWAVE TOWER 
U.S.A. 

BOY OBAMA STATUE 
with butterfly and surveillance camera 
Jakarta, Indonesia 

So it is not legal, and it does not work particularly well (see here and here), but we are continuing it anyway (here): "metadata collection."  

BORIS BEREZOVSKY WOULD HAVE BEEN SIXTY-EIGHT TODAY

BORIS BEREZOVSKY 

January 23, 1946-March 23, 2013 

BEREZOVSKY 

pictured at the height of 

his powers in Russia; 

died in exile in the U.K., 

an apparent suicide 

Why did he do it? 

Some contemporaneous reporting on the investigation into his death, including video of his house, here; three long appreciations, here, here, and here. 

Gone, but still in the courts. A week ago, and almost ten months after his death, the British High Court of Justice granted Aeroflot the right to appeal a case against Berezovsky (here). 

JAMES CARROLL IS SEVENTY AND ONE

JAMES CARROLL 

b. January 22, 1943 

AIR FORCE BRAT 
1960 Graduate 
General H. H. Arnold High School 
Wiesbaden, West Germany 

also 

WRITER 
Fiction and Non-Fiction 

and 
former PRIEST 

James Carroll was in the news recently with a New Yorker profile of Pope Francis ("Who Am I to Judge?"). He also has a column in the Boston Globe ("Sounding the Alarm, Then and Now") on the recently disclosed story of eight anti-war protestors who revealed some of the excesses of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, by means of the burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, back in March 1971. Edward Snowden is the obvious "Now" to the Media burglary eight's "Then." Carroll is alarmed: "While government overreach is partly to blame for privacy-destroying intrusions into the communications of average citizens, so are unbridled new technologies to which citizens have willingly made themselves hostage." 

DEMONSTRATIONS IN KIEV THEN AND NOW

KIEV (KYIV) 

AT A TURNING POINT? 

"DEMONSTRATION" 

KIEV, USSR 

September 1, 1984 

A mass rally for Peace and Knowledge Day (September 1) in Soviet Ukraine:  all the participants were vetted; the leaders and speakers (on the stairs) keep their distance.  The journalists are working in the no-man's land (a kind of dry moat) between the chosen citizens and their leaders. 

An independent Ukraine emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. 

Nine years ago the Orange Revolution toppled the government. 

Two months ago demonstrators took to the street in Kiev again, after President Viktor Yanukovych chose to partner with Russia rather than the European Union. This week there have been violent clashes between protestors and the police.  Legislation severely limiting demonstrations is due to come into force tomorrow. Today the foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, weighed in, protesting against the protesters. 

Reporting and analysis (and photographs and video) can be found here and here and here and here and here and here. 

Update February 18, 2014: Violence and fire and a meeting of President and Opposition, but no meeting of minds, here. 

MOON OVER PRAMBANAN

PRAMBANAN 

MOONRISE 

THE MAIN SHIVA TEMPLE 
PRAMBANAN TEMPLE COMPLEX 
ON THE INDONESIAN 
ISLAND OF JAVA 

A World Heritage Site 

MANY JANIS JOPLINS, ALL THE ORIGINAL

JANIS JOPLIN 

January 19, 1943-October 4, 1970 

JANIS JOPLIN & THE FULL TILT BOOGIE 
 at her last concert, Harvard Stadium, 
Boston, August 12, 1970 

For larger versions of these photographs, and more about Janis, 
see here and here 

PIZARRO FOUNDS LIMA 479 YEARS AGO

FRANCISCO PIZARRO 

FOUNDS THE 

CITY OF THE KINGS 
(now Lima, Peru) 

January 18, 1535 

PIZARRO'S TOMB IN 
THE CATHEDRAL OF 
LIMA, PERU 

The Inscription 

The celebrations have commenced! 

But see also here and especially here. 

THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF CANADA WANTS A KEYSTONE DECISION, AND HE WANTS IT NOW

JOHN BAIRD 

LAYS IT ON THE LINE 

CANADA WANTS 
TO KNOW  

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, on a trip to Washington, tried to force an answer from the U.S. as to whether it will sign off on a 1,200-mile pipeline from the Alberta tar sands to the Gulf Coast.  Even when he said a No would be better than No Answer, he could not get the U.S. administration to tip its hand. 

Some reporting and analysis can be found here and here and here. 

THE FACE IN THE MIRROR

RESTING YOUR EYES 

A MOMENT 

AT THE WHEEL 

MANY EYES ON THE PRIZE: A BEAUTY CONTEST ON JAVA, INDONESIA

BEAUTY & THE MALL 

HOW MANY LENSES? 

Ambarrukmo Mall 

Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

More photographs here 

PETER O'TOOLE GONE ONE MONTH

PETER O'TOOLE 

August 2, 1932-December 14, 2013 

AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB 

Washington, D.C. 

Two decades after Lawrence of Arabia 

Some of the more interesting obituaries and remembrances can be seen here and here and here; a rather different British interview from 1972, with some anecdotes about his beginnings, here; and a Joseph Wambaugh tale from his police days here. 

Two films of O'Toole's (just to start with) that certainly made politics visual and memorable: Lawrence of Arabia, of course, but Becket very much so also. 

YOU THINK U.S. POLITICS ARE HIGHLY POLARIZED? IN THAILAND THEY ARE TAKING TO THE STREETS AND TALKING OF A COUP

DEMOCRACY 

IN THAILAND 

THAI PRIME MINISTER 

YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA 

ON THE WORLD STAGE 

THE APEC SUMMIT 

Bali, Indonesia 

October 2013 

Is an un-elected people's council more democratic than a democratically elected government? The opposition to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra thinks so, and is trying to force her to resign by filling the streets of Bangkok and attempting to shut the capital down. Today was the first official day of the shutdown action; the story continues. Some reportage and analysis can be found here and here and here. 

Update January 21, 2014:  A State of Emergency declared; details here. 

NAVIGATING THE STREETS OF INDONESIA II

NIGHT TRAFFIC 

ON THE CURVE 

CENTRAL JAKARTA 

JAVA, INDONESIA 

IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT: MORE OF THE B-BOYS AT THE PALACE

B-BOYS 

AT THE PALACE 

WITH ORCHESTRA 

THE HANDS HAVE IT 

Gyeongbok Palace 
Seoul, South Korea 

THE DECLINE OF THE CITY OF ANGELS?? SOME IN LOS ANGELES APPARENTLY THINK SO

THE SPREAD OF LOS ANGELES 

LOS ANGELES FROM THE AIR, 

WITH MOUNTAINS 

A preliminary report is out, with much more scheduled to come,  from the Los Angeles 2020 Commission. "A Time for Truth" does the handwringing; the hard work of reconciling business and labor and civic leaders' interests -- and the public's? -- is due to be completed in ninety days. Only ninety days. 

See here for some of the specifics of the "grim complaints"; some pushback here and especially here. 

ONE HUNDRED AND ONE YEARS SINCE RICHARD NIXON WAS BORN

RICHARD M. NIXON 

January 9, 1913- April 22, 1994 

Speaker of the House of Representatives 

CARL ALBERT (left) and 

President RICHARD NIXON (right) 

in the White House 

BEHIND THE CURVE, BUT INTERESTING: VLADIMIR PUTIN PITCHES IN ENGLISH

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN 

MAKES A PITCH FOR 

YEKATERINBURG 

VLADIMIR PUTIN 

 Moscow, March 2000 

Last year Russia made a bid for the 2020 World Expo to be held in Yekaterinburg. To help promote Russia's chances, President Putin made a video appeal in English, which can be seen here (with an HD option).  It is dated June 2013; the photograph above was taken      the day of Putin's first election. 

The website for the Yekaterinburg bid is here. 

Vladimir Putin said that surely it was time for Russia to host the World Expo, but in November it was announced that Dubai had won instead. 

ONE MONTH TO GO TILL THE SOCHI OLYMPICS

LOCATION, LOCATION, 

LOCATION, AND 

SECURITY, SECURITY, 

SECURITY 

INTERIOR OF THE MOTHER RUSSIA 

MEMORIAL TO THE 

BATTLE OF STALINGRAD 

VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA 

The world has had a few years to get used to the fact that Russia's first Winter Olympics was to be held in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, better known for its beaches than its ice skating. It had also not gone unnoticed that Sochi was uncomfortably close to the restive North Caucasus region. 

Just over a week ago, on December 29 and 30, suicide bombers struck not at Sochi but several hundred miles away at the presumably easier target of Volgograd, devastated in the pivotal World War II Battle of Stalingrad. Terror struck first a train station and then a bus, in the run-up and on the road to the Olympics. 

Read more here and here 

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL REVEALS A SKIING ACCIDENT

NOW IT 

HAS BEEN TOLD 

ANGELA MERKEL 

STRIDING 

IN BETTER TIMES 

On the other hand, it is not too bad a time now, given her recently haven been chosen Chancellor of Germany for the third time. But over the Christmas holiday, Chancellor Merkel fell skiing in Switzerland, and apparently thought she was only bruised. Turned out she had fractured her pelvis, a fact revealed finally today.  There are reports here and here and in Der Spiegel in English, here. The German version of Der Spiegel has a much fuller account, here ("Chancellor On Ice"), complete with an anatomical diagram and a map showing the location in Switzerland (here). Some background on "The Making of Angela Merkel" is to be found here. 

TIP O'NEILL GONE TWENTY YEARS TODAY

THOMAS P. ("TIP") 

O'NEILL, JR. 

December 9, 1912- 

January 5, 1994 

TIP O'NEILL 

AT HIS CAPE COD HOME 

HARWICH PORT, MASSACHUSETTS 

More on the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, here 

MANMOHAN SINGH WILL NOT SEEK ANOTHER TERM AS INDIA'S PRIME MINISTER

AFTER TEN YEARS, 

INDIA WILL HAVE A 

NEW PRIME MINISTER 

INDIAN PRIME MINISTER 

2004-2014 (planned) 

MANMOHAN SINGH 

(second from left)  

ON THE WORLD STAGE 

at the Expanded G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, in July 2006, with then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on his right, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on his left, and then Chinese President Hu Jintao to Nazarbayev's left 

A selection of postmortems and appraisals 

here and here and here 

For a time it was "Singh Is King," and then... 

Singh the Placeholder, the loyal former Finance Minister 

Now to make way for Rahul Gandhi -- 

Except the polls do not make this look an auspicious time for the Congress Party Rahul Gandhi is meant to inherit the leadership of  

WHO'S WALKING HERE?

I'M WALKING 

HERE 

NAVIGATING 

THE STREETS OF 
INDONESIA 
I 

JAKARTA 

XI JINPING'S NEW YEAR WISHES

THE PRESIDENT 

OF CHINA WISHES 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

TO CHINESE 

AND FRIENDS 

ALL OVER THE WORLD 

XI JINPING 

AT THE APEC SUMMIT 

Bali, October 2013 

The video is here (with the Chinese text) 

The text of the speech is in English here 

An audio only version is here, with English voiceover 

A report on the speech is here 

More Xi Jinping here 

2014

WISHING YOU 

AND YOURS 

A MOST 

HAPPY & 

PROSPEROUS 

NEW YEAR