MAY 2005

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/26/2005 4:55 AM
25.04.2005
The feel-bad factor

Here is a film that will not be showing at your local cinemas this week. Indeed its very title — The 3 Rooms of Melancholia — might have been deliberately constructed so as to minimise its commercial appeal. Then there is its subject matter: the child victims of the Chechen war. And its provenance: Finland. Not to mention that it is shot in excruciatingly long takes with virtually no dialogue. The music is not too catchy either.

Not one for that restless Saturday night, then. But it is an extraordinary work. I would garland it with more superlatives, just so that some courageous independent distributor could plunder a few fruity adjectives to use in a promotional poster; but frankly it is near pointless. I would commend it in the highest possible terms to all my readers, but the truth is you don’t have much chance of getting to see it at all.

The film is split into ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/27/2005 5:01 AM
27.04.2005
The Media Should not Fight Terrorism

On 17th March the Parliamentary Assembly Commission on Culture, Science and Education held parliamentary hearings in Paris at which participants discussed issues such as the role assigned to the mass media in terrorists’ plans, the ability of the mass media to self-regulate, the existing legislation in this sphere and the opportunities to improve them through political means.

Amongst the participants at the hearings were Timur Aliev, editor of the «Chechen Society» newspaper, the editor of «El Pais», Francisco Gor, the Figaro correspondent, Georges Malbrunot, the General Secretary of «Reporters without Borders», Robert Menard, Vit Pohanka, a correspondent for «Czech Radio», a TV presenter and member of the editorial team for «Al-Jazeera», Mohamed Krichen and the Controller of Editorial Policy from the BBC, Stephen Whittle.

Commentary

Everyone understands that we need to do something about terrorism, both in Russia and in Europe, but what we should do and how, is known only by a few. Nor ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/28/2005 4:11 AM
28.04.2005
“Epochal events”

Andreas Gross was pleased with the results of “the round table” in Strasbourg. Anyway, this is what he said in his interviews: “The only thing I expected – was finding atmosphere to continue the discussion. And these expectations came true – none of those present said the Round Table would be useless.”

And here we cannot but agree with Gross. None of members of the Russian delegation which visited Strasbourg (about 99% of the participants of the round feast) will refuse to visit this beautiful city again, especially if at PACE’s expenses… Their aspiration for such dialog is ineradicable. And if for them “the round table” is a complete amusement, for Gross – this is the job he invented himself.

Although many analysts unambiguously said the idea of PACE’s rapporteur had a zero efficiency, he is not going to give it up, on the contrary he is confident that the process will become progressive and “the round table” ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/29/2005 5:18 AM
29.04.2005
Chess legend Kasparov to ’Post’: Double-check Putin!

As Russian President Vladimir Putin spent his first full day here on Thursday, legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov had a message for Israel: Don’t trust him!

In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post from Russia, Kasparov, who has retired from chess and is now a political rival of the president’s, complained that Putin’s regime is trampling on democratic principles and poses a serious threat to the rest of the world. He also said that Putin’s reliance on support from ultranationalist forces could spell trouble for Russia’s Jews, and he skewered Putin for strategic shortcomings that, he said, could imperil Israel.

Russian sales of missiles to Syria and nuclear technology to Iran, for example, were misguided steps that should worry not only Israel, Kasparov said. Actually, he continued, they were proof that Putin and his regime «just want a short-term profit» and that they «don’t think strategically, they can’t think long-term."

The Russian president ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/30/2005 10:21 AM
April, 29, 2005

What happens to mankind?

One woman, not having managed to get into a bus, was walking by a dusty road, KamAZs were passing by, but nobody gave her a lift. At last, some KamAZ stopped; she was invited to get in. She sighed with simplification and, remembering the experience of hippie, complained to the driver, that she had been walking for two hours, and nobody wanted to give her a lift.

After these words the driver stopped at once and told her to go out.

The moral, which she realized was the following, the world had changed, and had changed to the worst.

Certainly, it is possible to consider to the worst and best side to be a conditional character. But I can also ascertain that for the last twenty years the mankind has changed not to the best. There are also good changes. But I ask: whether good changes are a mask for bad ones?

The matter is that ...
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