Lia Petridis Maiello

Diversifying the Arms Industry

2013-04-26T12:00:00-04:00

In early April, the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York City adopted an international arms trade treaty (ATT) that is supposed to regulate global arms deals. It is also expected to bring more transparency into the $70 billion business. The five largest arms exporters are -- according to a study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in March -- the U.S., Russia, Germany, France and China.

Due to market pressure, cuts in defense budgets in some nations and growing ethical concerns in others, arms producers, trade unions as well as policy makers are looking into ways to diversify the industry. The goal is to transfer some of the technology, experience and research into the civil sector in order to create or maintain jobs that can sustain a developed economy in a similar fashion the arms industry does at the moment.

An interview with Juergen Buehl, head of IG Metall's working group Defense, Germany's largest metal worker union, clarifies where this development could head towards in Germany.

Lia Petridis Maiello: The diversification of the arms industry in Germany has been on the agenda for quite some time now, how exactly could the process look like?

Jürgen Bühl: I personally don't think that it was on the agenda for too long, actually. It was definitely a subject in the '80s and also after the end of the Cold War. Ultimately, diversification or conversion in the arms industry was not a big subject during the past ten to fifteen years, not even in peace research. I think that has more to do with the fact that other subjects seemed more relevant at the time.

I believe it also had to do with certain occurring wars and conflicts, for instance in the Balkans, as well as asymmetric conflicts that were and still are taking place worldwide. But it is certainly a subject that has to be looked at in its present context. As with many things, it is a matter of perspective.

For example if you take a look at the German arms company Diehl. This firm is always associated with arms production when really their overall revenue resulting from arms production is only about 20 percent nowadays. Or look at a supplier such as MTU Aero Engines in Munich, a firm that mainly produces jet engines. In the '80s they had a stake of 80 percent in arms production and today it's only 20 percent. So basically the ratio is reversed.

Also, a study from the German Federal Association for the Security and Defense Industry describes that the core areas of the arms trade, for example the construction of armored vehicles, military planes and naval vessels, constitutes only 14 to 15 percent of the sector's revenue today. Others, such as electronics and cyber security, increased greatly. But overall the subject has not been systematically researched. Maybe it is possible to revive the discussion from the 1980's and let it evolve from there.

LPM: How do you explain the relevance of the subject in the '80s, its disappearance, and its renaissance?

JB: Well, the peace movement was very strong in the 1980s which contributed to the discussion in Germany. In the late '80s and early '90s, Germany was discussing the peace dividend.

With the discontinuation of the Cold War, we no longer had such an enormous demand for an overly strong army. The peace dividend unfortunately didn't work out, because of international politics, as well as the changing nature of worldwide conflict. The Cold War ended, but I don't think one can say that the world is more peaceful overall. And of course, one main reason was that arms firms made a lot of revenue with their sales.

LPM: What products are we looking at? What products can you transfer easily from the military to the civilian sector?

JB: This is one of the most exciting questions. Personally, I'm not aware of much research being conducted in the area in order to establish a trend. But in Germany the products at the moment are strongly linked to the sector of renewable energies, wind turbines for example, which of course don't work everywhere. A certain number of shipyards already tried making that transfer, but were not able to sustain themselves solely through that new technology. I would think that the main future focus for German firms will be in the area of civil security and safety. So far, the entire industry is in the early stages of this new development. Later on we will have to look from company to company to understand what actually might be possible in terms of new developments within the field. Firstly, much more extensive research and development has to happen in the area.

LPM: A speculative question: Do you think that the effects of the restructuring within the arms trade might have a faster visible impact than the Arms Trade Treaty when it comes to the securing of peace?

JB:Pivotal for Europe are the markets in Western Europe, possibly also in the NATO area, and of course friendly states. We already know that the demand is decreasing in this area. European nations as well as the US are cutting their budgets. These companies have to react to that, Germany's in particular, since we have strict export controls. If that development can contribute to global peace keeping is a good question. As long as there is war, there will be arms production.

LPM: How could you avoid, while going forward and tapping into new markets via restructuring, a regional dependency on the arms industry to avoid major job lay-offs. To name one example, Lake Constance, a well-known region of arms production in Germany?

JB: Lake Constance might be an area that is internationally well known, but the supply chains in Germany are distinctly more complicated. But indeed, the question is, how can arms firms develop areas in order to enter other segments with the know-how they have? That will look very different from one firm to another, however. There may also be firms that develop civil products and sell to that segment, while still focusing on producing traditional arms. At the end of the day though, it is now time to evaluate the different options. This is an area where industry and politics will have to work together in order to manage these diverse challenges appropriately and preserve jobs. The pressure for innovation in these companies is so great in the meantime, that they are more or less forced to consider new options. Firms need to think about long-term marketability.

LPM: In comparison, how do you interpret the intensified arms production in developing nations, such as Brazil and China in terms of global security considerations?

JB: Well, international security is not really the core area of expertise of the IG Metall union, but it is clear that the BIC nations and states in the Gulf region, not only have an interest in buying weapons, but also to focus to a certain extent on developing their own arms production. This is simply viewed as part of the general industrialization process within the respective countries. It doesn't make the world a safer place necessarily, but on the other hand these nations are autonomous states with a right to develop. An arms trade treaty everyone would adhere to, would definitely help.

LPM: The US is investing more money into research and development on the diversification of the arms industry at the moment than is Europe, with the superpower being under increasing pressure due to the fact that the US is retrieving soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq. Do you think this might, in the long run, impede Europe's competitiveness?

JB: That's one of IG Metall's main demands, that the investment into research and development has to be increased. The European Union can be of assistance with their different programs in different areas, so diversification by simultaneously supporting individual governments with EU programs could work out well. That is a Europe-wide request raised by international unions.

When Peacemakers Become Perpetrators: Kathryn Bolkovac Introduces The Whistleblower at the UN

2013-02-19T18:40:38-05:00

Photo: Kathryn Bolkovac

Kathryn Bolkovac had a passion for doing what is right, representing an institution that symbolizes the culture of peace, humanity and international justice like no other in the world: the United Nations. After living up to the moral standards set by the very same institution, her career in international law enforcement ended in April 2001.

Bolkovac disclosed the horrors of sexual enslavement of young women, trafficked mainly from Russia and the Ukraine -- also performed by UN peacekeepers in Bosnia. According to a report provided by Human Rights Watch, the "clientele" in Bosnia consisted of International Police Task Force (IPTF) members, SFOR (Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina) staff, local police, international employees, and local citizens.

Recently Bolkovac returned to UN headquarters in New York City, introducing her book The Whistleblower, the testimony that inspired the film with the same name, starring British actress Rachel Weisz. It is a moving and enlightening scripture that serves as a crucial reminder that according to a document released by the UN in March 2010, titled "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse": "sexual exploitation and abuse, in a variety of different forms, has been found to exist to a greater or lesser extent in all duty stations."

Former Nebraska police investigator Kathryn Bolkovac joined the UN Police Task Force in post-war Bosnia in 1999 as an employee of the private military contractor DynCorp in order to train local police officers. She became a human rights investigator, and after blowing the whistle on the humanitarian crimes taking place, she was fired. Bolkovac sued DynCorp in a British employment tribunal, claiming she had been unfairly dismissed. The tribunal ruled in her favor.

As a consequence, the UN published a bulletin of a zero-tolerance policy for all UN personnel in 2003, one among many other initiatives implemented over the years. Despite the concerted efforts, however, sexual assaults in the field instigated by UN peacekeepers are still occurring, the victimized groups often including boys and minors.

In September of 2011 the New York Times reported, "This week, hundreds of Haitians protested in support of an 18-year-old who said he was sexually assaulted by peacekeepers from Uruguay on a United Nations base, eliciting a furious rebuke from Haiti's president and an apology from Uruguay."

A major underlying problem is the limited control that the UN has over individual peacekeepers. A 2007 vote in the General Assembly prevents the UN from taking the lead role in investigating wrongdoing by peacekeepers; that responsibility falls with the troop contributing countries (TCCs) themselves.

This was a problem that had already been clearly identified in a UN internal study in 2005. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in reaction to the scandal and the image damage the UN had suffered, had established the position of the Special Adviser on Sexual Exploitation in Peacekeeping in 2004, which he filled with the former Jordanian ambassador Prince Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein who published a damning study in 2005, stating, "Member states are not reliable enough to do a good job on their own, especially in the early stages of a military investigation." The current UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has never filled that position.

Following, an interview with Kathryn Bolkovac, while visiting the UN headquarters in New York City to introduce her book The Whistleblower.

How did you feel about coming back to the UN in New York City?

It was an emotional and somewhat bittersweet moment for me. Although so many hard-working staff members support my work and are concerned about the treatment I have received over the years, it seems that many of those same staff members still recognize that many of the same problems I encountered still exist within the walls of the UN and mission areas. In fact, both during and after my appearance I had several UN employees wanting to contact me confidentially to report what they consider more of the same. Politics rather than transparent diplomacy is still a dilemma, as well as protection of those who wish to disclose wrongdoing, discrimination, mismanagement, or legitimate corruption.

When you sent your email with the subject, "Do not read this if you have a weak stomach or a guilty conscience," to about 50 senior mission personnel describing the unbelievable occurrences of trafficking, sexual abuse, and white slavery in Bosnia, did you ever think about the personal consequences you might have to endure?

At the moment I sent the email, I had already been experiencing serious retaliation against my work and reporting. Of course I never thought that my international law enforcement career would be destroyed for telling the truth and seeking justice, which is of course what the role of a law enforcement officer is supposed to be.

Looking back: Do you feel that civil courage and practicing ethics within one's profession are worth the sacrifices in the end?

To be honest it probably depends on the civil courage and ethical beliefs of the management in charge of whatever organization you may work for. It certainly is a gamble and the odds will be against you based on the stories of most whistleblowers with whom I have had contact with over the years.

Do you feel that people who decide to work for an organization such as the UN should be held accountable to higher moral standards? Did it disappoint you more when UN staff on management level failed to support you in the disclosure of your findings?

Absolutely! A higher moral standard should be expected by UN staff, peacekeepers, IPTF, and contracted private companies. We all represent the United Nations and our home governments. This work should be a calling to service, not a money-making venture.

How much credibility does the UN, as the international organization for preserving peace and justice in the world, have in your opinion after these experiences?

I am still trying to come to terms with that. It is very limited.

What role did Madeleine Rees, the former head of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights play for you?

She was one of the few people I could trust to tell the truth. She knew the political will of the UN and did her utmost to support me and speak out on the inaction and cover-up that was being perpetrated, even at the potential loss of her own job.

Does the fact that the private military contractor DynCorp continues to win multimillion-dollar military contracts with the American government in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti among other places, make you question the practices of the US government? What alternatives would there be for the UN or the US government to sufficiently staff their field operations?

I address this issue in my book. However, in a few words, the most important thing to me is that government contractors have no business in law enforcement or judicial roles in mission areas, or for that matter domestically in the USA. We can and should have a federal agency overseeing and recruiting our law enforcement officers for work overseas, and accountability and allegiance to our government and values should be the first priority. Please review the provisions of the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act [from 2010]. It has never passed, nor gotten out of committee. [The proposed legislation allows the government to prosecute government contractors and employees for certain serious crimes. The legislation expands on the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA), which provides similar criminal jurisdiction over Department of Defense employees and contractors, but does not clearly apply to U.S. contractors working overseas for other federal agencies, such as the Department of State.] Private contractors are in the business of making money and many of their employees have allegiance to the company who gives them their paycheck. This is a serious problem.

What happened to the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) in Bosnia, Jacques Paul Klein, under whose supervision the cases of human trafficking occurred, and who then went on to lead the UN mission in Liberia where he presided over similar scandals?

It is my understanding he was removed from his position after his activities in Liberia which were found to be somewhat unethical and unprofessional. I do believe he still makes a good living lecturing and teaching around the world.

That leads me to diplomatic immunity a policy that in some cases can prevent prosecution related to human trafficking perpetrators. This has also been a recurring matter related to UN diplomats that have been trafficking housing staff from their home countries into the US and subsequently could not been prosecuted. In how far did this form of legal immunity play a role in protecting offenders in Bosnia?

Status of Forces Agreements, and a policy of allowing home countries to discipline or prosecute their nationals for criminal behavior or misconduct, are two things that need continued review on these immunity issues.

How effective do you think is the Conduct and Discipline Unit (CDU) established by the UN in 2007? [The Conduct and Discipline Unit (CDU) was formally established in the Department of Field Support in 2007 following the initial formation of a Conduct and Discipline Team in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in 2005. It was launched as part of a package of reforms in United Nations peacekeeping designed to strengthen accountability and uphold the highest standards of conduct.]

I do not have much information on this, however, it appears from the comments of the UN Staff this week that it is rather ineffective.

Do you feel there is enough legislation in place, both in the US and internationally, to punish human trafficking perpetrators adequately? If not, what legal prosecution mechanisms would you like to see put in place?

No. We need to enact something similar to the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. This would allow rapid and effective reporting mechanisms, investigative jurisdiction, arrest with probable cause, and many other necessary tools to seriously work on this issue.

Is the UN's "zero tolerance" policy on sexual abuse by peacekeepers, announced in 2003 effective? [The UN started making publicly available its aggregated data on such misconduct.]

This is a policy that is impossible to enforce and is not overseen in a serious manner that allows employees to come forward with complaints without fear of retaliation.

The movie The Whistleblower was screened at UN headquarters in NYC and you recently visited UN headquarters as well in order to present and sign your book The Whistleblower, which inspired the film. Is that, in your opinion, an honest attempt to flag immoral behavior within the UN system or a public relations move? In particular, considering the fact that a UN internal memo was leaked before the screening, that clearly indicated members of the UN staff tried to play down the movie and prevent the screening.

I think the leaked memo, which I have not seen, came from the legal advisers, not the UN Staff. I give credit to Ban Ki-Moon for screening the film. I think the action is both a PR move and an attempt to bring attention at least to more changes that must be addressed within the UN as discussed above. Clearly there are still many problems. This is not a chapter in the past.

President Obama signed a provision in the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA 2013) into law on January 2, 2013, which is supposed to strengthen whistleblower rights for U.S. police officers who work in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Do you believe that that will help police staff coming forward with the truth when they experience the violation of law within a UN field operation?

I am not sure yet. This will have to be tested. Also once again this refers to a pilot project over a four-year period of time in which contractors who work for federal agencies other than the Department of Defense will be scrutinized. It might be a good idea to contact the man who has been put in charge of the oversight and implementation of this new law, as well as a recent Presidential Executive order cracking down on human trafficking in government contracting, Rob Berchinski, Director of Security and Human Rights Policy with the National Security Council. I am also trying to reach out to his office to see how I can assist in this process through my work and international advocacy work. I hope I get a reply.

How do you interpret the fact that the current Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, never filled the position of the special adviser on sexual exploitation in peacekeeping, since that seems to be a recurring, ongoing problem?

Hmm.. I guess I am not really surprised. Aren't there any qualified applicants?

For details about Kathryn Bolkovac, upcoming travels, readings and other activities, please go to www.bolkovac.com.

A New York Institution -- Jean-Claude Baker Tells Stories From West-Berlin

2012-12-10T12:33:21-05:00

There are places of longing to which one returns again and again because they are beautiful and exotic. Or the exact opposite. Perhaps they have become home in their striking, first otherness. The heavy door to Chez Josephine in New York's theater district conceals one of the last places of its kind in the metropolis: the bohemian New York, the New York of Jean-Claude Baker.

"Come on in mein Schatz, I have a nice table for you." Baker speaks German with passion and a heavy French accent. Jean Claude carries a grand name. The first black female artist of world fame, Josephine Baker, evolves in 1957 into the mother and confidant he never had before. Independent, outspoken, successful -- and mostly absent.

"The best time of my life," he spent in Berlin, West Berlin, he explains, as it was called back in 1963 when he arrived at the famous Fasanenstraße in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Twenty years old, Jean-Claude hitchhiked all the way from France, already having lived two lives. First was the one of a poor semi-orphan, who didn't know his father and was ridiculed by the villagers because his mother was sometimes begging for money. Then, the beautiful adolescent, starting a new life at age 14 in Paris where he was raped by an older man.

"My little brothel," Baker lovingly calls his restaurant, was once an erotic massage parlor. With its opulent reds, the warm, muted light, the soft piano music, the large-scale paintings that mostly show a scantily clad Josephine Baker, and the large mirrors on the walls, a certain sensuality can be felt at Chez Josephine. That sensuality continues on the menu. From delicate filet mignon that you should consume most bloody with a glass of Cabernet Franc, to the frozen cappuccino parfait, all of Bakers creations melt in ones mouth.

In 1986 Baker opened his restaurant in New York City's theatre district, notorious for its red light industry. "I loved it here back then. Prostitutes, people in the streets, looking for sex. It was so lively! I miss that, because it had soul and people like me need that to survive! Times change, but we are still here. I am an entertainer. I love the show," he says with a smile, rises, hovers to the door in his black silk soutane in order to greet the next guest with open arms.

Known for its unique charm and elegance: Chez Josephine. Photo: Frank Maiello

Baker enjoys telling stories of West Berlin and how well he was treated in a divided post-war Germany. "In Germany, you have shown me so much respect and tolerance, as I have honestly hardly experienced anywhere else," says Baker, always keeping an eye on his service staff. "Strict but fair, and incredibly generous," bartender Robert McDaniel describes his boss, and he should know, he has been working for the past 25 years for the now 69-year-old Baker. "Jean-Claude works hard and he expects the same from us. In the 25 years he has fired me three times and I was suspended about 10 times," he smirks while mixing a gin and tonic.

Story teller and enchanting host Jean-Claude Baker. Photo: Frank Maiello

Jean-Claude Baker arrived two years after the construction of the Berlin Wall and was able to quickly gain a foot hold in the local film, arts and alternative club scene. The handsome eccentric with impeccable manners and a charming directness enchanted Berlin's high society. The key figure and protégé during the Berlin years was Norbert Binder, owner of the gay bar Kleist Casino. Jean-Claude became his personal disc jockey and not too long after his arrival, he was able to open his own bar, the Pimm's Club, for bisexuals, gays, lesbians and heterosexuals alike. "The club was my cocktail of human beings. If the gays complained about too many women, I told them they should go and be bored in a gay bar. When straight customers were upset about the gays, I recommended them to visit hetero clubs. I had so much fun!" The Pimm's Club was quickly becoming one of West Berlin's exclusive addresses.

Leonard Bernstein, Romy Schneider, Orson Welles, Zarah Leander -- they all visited and enjoyed the ambiance. It was a place where they could be whoever they want. "We were serving microwaved hamburgers and caviar," he recalls. Baker had become known throughout the city and next to the Pimm's club, he opened an exclusive boutique with clothing from Paris.

In the 1950s he had made the acquaintance of Josephine Baker in Paris, a relationship that deepened significantly in Berlin. "I had heard that Josephine was in town and she had problems, so I decided to arrange a concert in her honor." Because Baker predicted that Josephine might not be able to fill concert halls by herself, he hired the German stars the Kessler twins. "Josephine was weak, fairly done up and wore a wig, but on stage she was still the star."

Jean-Claude Baker and Maman in West-Berlin. Photo: Jean-Claude Baker

Baker decided to take the life of the aging star in his hands and organized fundraisers for the 12 adopted children Josephine called her rainbow tribe. "Josephine's utopian dream of eternal solidarity," Baker calls it in retrospect, with admiration in his voice. During the next 10 years, until Josephine's death in Paris in 1975, Baker operated as manager, secretary, breadwinner, confidant and son of sometimes moody Josephine. Together they traveled to Europe and the United States. "In daytime she was pretty unbearable, but in the evening when we were alone, it was different," says Baker. In her honor, he founded the Jean-Claude Baker Foundation, which is dedicated in particular for the promotion of African-American artists.

And now? What else is there to accomplish after all the adventures that drove the tireless philanthropist throughout the world? "There's a new love in my life," Baker says, and smiles. "Devin is four years old, the autistic son of Ecuadorian immigrants and my godson."

Maman Josephine would have cherished it.

"Welcome to Chez Josephine!"

Swiss Video-Artist Alexander Hahn's Digital Moments of Silence

2012-09-19T17:29:16-04:00

A never-ending, seemingly inescapable flood of digitized images might form the average consciousness today. Depending on the individual, their history, social factors, and consumption habits, this contemporary reality can be as inspiring as it can be overwhelming and counterproductive. An inflation of forms of expression and media are easy enough to handle, but maintain few secrets, with very little privacy and hardly any intimacy.

Swiss video artist Alexander Hahn captures digital moments of silence. He has been doing so successfully since the late 1970s. Snapshots of life newly arranged in new contexts become snapshots of an altered reality and sometimes a reflection of the subconscious. His latest exhibition Cao Chang Di Road On November 24, 2009 I Stood There Waiting at the Digital Media Arts Center Harvestworks in SoHo last weekend consisted of four video installations and provided intense glimpses of intimacy into human existence. Moreover, Hahn does not only come with installations that reflect global modern times and hyper-realities, but also creates the appropriate space that allows their intimate coexistence.

The high definition monitor piece Public Places-Private Strangers-Temporal Attractions shows two women watching a film in a museum. Three same sized monitors installed on a tall, empty wall pronounce different details of this very peaceful, absorbent scene in organic colors, displaying public intimacy and the processing of art through the lens of a secret bystander. Hahn has a trained eye for mundane situations and their transference into the de-codification of life.

The second HD monitor piece ON is a two second loop. It describes modern communication, particularly surrounding a certain isolationist mentality of the urban individual in constant need to define his or her own narrow, limited space in a metropolis such as New York City where consistent stimulus is available. Numerous gadgets like smart phones, with their multiple ways of distracting and even blocking reality from the user, are supporting a strong, supposedly individualistic sense of both environment perception and the perception of the self. Aesthetically very appealing, this black and white piece shows a woman in a classic New York corner bakery having a lively conversation to an invisible counterpart on her cell phone. Again, Hahn acts as the anonymous observer, catching her in this very intimate, yet simultaneously public moment. While she is not talking to an audience and certainly unaware that she will be the center piece of an exhibition in her hometown of New York City, she suddenly turns around and looks straight into the camera: A moment the audience is longing for to establish this inter-human connection that is so often missing in contemporary, urban life.

Hahn's artwork has been constantly driven by a high level of factual sensuality and is a guarantor for continuing quality. An "organically growing" process he describes his method of creation, often dominated by the ongoing frustration to elude himself from his work, to create breathing room and space for growth.

Bio: Alex Hahn, a New York/Zürich-based electronic media artist, received his MFA from the University of Fine Arts, Zürich/CH and is a 1981 fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. His videos, installations and computer prints are exhibited worldwide, most recently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Kunstmuseum Solothurn/CH, the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara/IT, and the National Art Museum of China, Beijing/CN. Among his awards are the New York State Council on the Arts Grant, Zurich Work Award, and the Swiss Federal Grant.

For more information, please visit the artist's website: www.alexanderhahn.com

Bloodshed and Sleeping Beauty -- Scottish Artist Darren Jones Exhibits at the Museum of Russian Art in Jersey City

2012-03-01T11:28:11-05:00

The Museum of Russian Art is taking an alternative route these days, expanding their variety of work to artists who are not necessarily from Russia, and not even from Eastern Europe, but from Scotland.

Darren Jones is showing at the museum, presenting a collection of inspiring fine art that opens up reality for wonder. Jones is translating mythology into minimalism, without neglecting the beauty of the unexplainable. A fruitful coexistence allows the observer to look far beyond the presented objects, so that he or she might be able to grasp, through fragments, the "supernatural history and spellbinding folklore of Scotland."

Rooted in the romantic era, Jones aptly demonstrates his own, personal interpretation of what artists in 18th century Europe saw as an ongoing scientific rationalization of nature, and he is able to answer a number of questions by composing new, surprising scenarios.

Glamis Castle, a well-known Scottish landmark from the 14th century, is one of the subjects Jones implements as a pars pro Toto for the inherent mystique of his home country, while translating it into contemporary terminology. "Myth Building," a "digitally painted print," demonstrates that high-tech methods can be quite arcane while using the medieval and classic motif of a castle -- a motif that couldn't be more controversial as it unites centuries of power abuse, bloodshed, and sleeping beauty.

Jones chose to show the contours of the medieval structure disgorging into a deep blue night sky in a place that seems wonderfully disconnected from time and progress -- in a romantic, Sleeping Beauty type of way. An intensely bright red, little window in the middle of the piece -- equally homey and uncanny -- permits the viewer a very intimate insight into the unknown.

The piece "When I am but Dust and Wind" describes in an elegant, simple manner the longing for human interaction, the melancholia and painful beauty of a moment that has passed and will never reoccur in the same way. Two pieces of stemware with dried traces of red wine on the bottom of these classic vessels function against one another, as a proxy for a feeling an experience, or even as a stereotype that whole novels have been created from. Motifs such as age, the undeniable passing of time, or the fading of a once passionate love come to mind, in his use of the very organic process of decomposition.

Jones has been living in New York City since 2006, after leaving behind at first his home town, Edinburgh, Scotland, and after that, London. "New York City can be tough for someone who is not necessarily solely seeking a connection to the commercial art world," the fine artist explains. "For so many, Chelsea is now the holy grail of art, while completely overlooking that there are so many more artistic communities in the New York City metropolitan area that truly inspire."

Darren Jones exhibit can be viewed by appointment at this number (917) 449-2842. More information about the artist can be found at www.darrenjonesart.com.

Roberto Saviano and Nouriel Roubini Discussing the Global Financial Mafia at NYU

2011-12-19T17:36:09-05:00

Nouriel Roubini, internationally acclaimed finance pop star, demands the introduction of a new discipline at the universities of the world, that of "criminal economics." Together with Roberto Saviano, the investigative journalist from Italy who has been a presumed target of Mafia godfathers for the past four years, he presented a lecture titled "Italy and the United States -- Two Perspectives on the Crisis" at New York University.

While Saviano pointed out the vulnerability of some U.S. banks for money laundering and economic crime, and then established a connection to the financial crisis and the Italian Mafia, Roubini declared social inequality as the fundamental evil of the financial crisis and showed solidarity with the young protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Security arrangements for Roberto Saviano's performance are thorough. Saviano is an Italian national hero, and he knows it. Two security guards follow him in a conspicuously inconspicuous manner while the reverent murmur preceding his entrance turns into surging applause. The audience consists largely of Italians living in New York City. Many left their home country because of a lack of opportunity or political exhaustion from 10 years of Silvio Berlusconi's questionable leadership. This evening they have not come out to listen to economist Nouriel Roubini, rather they want to celebrate the charismatic Roberto Saviano.

"I am a complicated guest," Saviano says apologetically, "all the more I admire the courage of my hosts." The author, who has been in hiding since 2006 and never sees daylight without security guards seems relieved this night. He smiles a lot although the international press describes him as having a great seriousness about him. Considering his situation, that doesn't come as a real surprise. The evening is a home game for a refugee who doesn't seem to fear the solitude that accompanies the fight for uncompromising truth.

Saviano focuses first on the machinations of financial institutions in the U.S. and the money that is laundered every year. Approximately 500 billion to one trillion dollars, profits from criminal activities like drug and human trafficking, are paid annually into various bank accounts around the world. Experts estimate that half that amount reaches the United States. Saviano is citing statistics from the DEA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Since early December, a group of Republican Congressmen have been investigating the DEA, whose agents allegedly washed several million U.S. dollars in an undercover investigation of Mexican drug cartels. The investigators tried to find out what pathways the illegal profits were taking, though the Mexican government does not consider this method as useful.

"Citibank, Wachovia, Wells Fargo." Saviano names the U.S. financial sinners with pleasure and finds himself in good company of U.S. politicians and scientists, who also have been dealing with this topic extensively. The linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, U.S. Senator Carl Levin, and sociologist James Petras have already published stories regarding the involvement of some U.S. banks in illegal financial transactions.

In 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a critical report titled "Raul Salinas, Citibank, and Alleged Money Laundering" that questioned the procedures of Citibank. The brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, Raul, had paid approximately 100 million U.S. dollars, drug money, into Swiss bank accounts with a little help from his friends at Citibank. Citibank had tried to obliterate the traces by using complex transactions and never verified the source of Salinas' assets.

"The willful blindness, and the ignorance of bank clerks and some authorities allow these illegal transactions to happen," Saviano adds while moving on to the next scandal, which he calls a "terrorist attack on the international financial system."

Wachovia, which had merged with Wells Fargo in 2008, was according to U.S. federal prosecutors, involved in the laundering of Mexican drug cartel money, to the amount of approximately 379 billion U.S. dollars. "The scandal only broke because one person in the system carried out their duty and reported it," says Saviano, citing Attorney Jeffrey Sloman, "Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws has issued international cocaine cartels a blank check to fund their illegal actions."

These types of financial cartels often operate with the support of authorities who contribute to the impairment of the global financial system, according to Saviano. Its credibility is affected from negatively, to an extremely high degree, while the peoples' trust in their governments and financial institutions is weakened. Saviano is naming large American banks and the Camorra mafia clans, Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita in the same breath just to clarify that there are no qualitative differences in breaking the law.

"At the same time, an organization such as Camorra is benefitting immensely from the financial crisis. The mafia helps small businesses in nee, if the banks do not grant more loans. The money will be paid even if there is little chance of compensation, because in the long run the company belongs to organized crime."

In 2008, the Italian employers' association, Confesercenti, published the report SOS Impresa (SOS Company) and explained that about 180,000 Italian traders owe their godfathers and are paying more than 12 million euros in interest annually. The Mafia also has access to enough cash to buy up property and companies in need at bargain prices. "If they ever should be running out of cash, they kill each other," says Saviano. A lack of cash flow doesn't seem to be a pressing issue for the Italian Mafia lately, since the combined turnover of all Italian "families" amounted to about 110 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, turning the Mafia into Italy's most flourishing business enterprise.

The situation in the U.S. looks similar: The FBI brought a total of 127 mobsters from New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island into custody in January of this year. Greg Smith, author of Nothing but Money -- How the Mob Infiltrated Wall Street, explained in an interview, "Mafiosi always find new ways to earn money no matter what state the economy is in. After the real estate market had collapsed in the U.S., they simply shifted their business from the corruption in the construction industry to mortgage fraud."

The Roubini-Saviano panel was not a night of stringent, economic analysis, but very trenchantly Saviano, the brave, provided an overview of criminal activities by "legitimate" financial institutions, who in many instances share the same ignorance towards the law as organized crime.

Astonished by German Astonishment Over Nazi Attacks

2011-11-22T06:28:21-05:00

I am not for the first time writing on behalf of the immigrant community to Germany, as the daughter of a Greek immigrant in Germany. On October 21st of 2010 I posted a "note to Angela Merkel" wondering about her statement that multiculturalism has apparently failed in Germany. With her testimony Germany's chancellor was supporting, hopefully inadvertently, an overall growing European sentiment that has become even more hostile towards cultural and religious differences.

The recent discovery of a decade-long serial murder plot by three Neo Nazis in Germany shocks the German nation and with it the entire world.

I wonder why?

Very conveniently the events of 9/11 in the US and its subsequent global hysteria have been misused to manifest a pseudo European-Christian superiority that has found its main target in Islam. Islam simply being in many cases the most current scapegoat for "the other."

Obviously hate doesn't differentiate much, and a dangerous climate of wide-ranging xenophobia seems to be establishing itself in many places in Europe. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the world's largest regional security organization based in Warsaw, Poland presented a report in 2006 which stated a significant increase in hate crimes against black Africans, Romani groups, Jews, Muslims, and gays all over Europe.

The killing spree by white Christian supremacist Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo paralyzed the international community in July this year. Meanwhile, far right-wing politicians such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and former fascist leader Benito Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra in Italy hold seats in their respective parliaments.

Wilders' Party for Freedom is the third-largest faction in the Netherlands House of Representatives and his claim to fame is not only the headline, "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam," but also the production of the movie Fitna. It has created international controversy by attempting to demonstrate that the Qur'an motivates its followers to hate all who violate Islamic teachings.

Wilders was banned from entering the United Kingdom between 12 February 2009 and 13 October 2009 by the Labour government, the Home Office saying his presence would be "a threat to one of the fundamental interests of society," which would be religious pluralism as an element of democracy. The ban was overturned after Wilders appealed and he visited the UK in October 2009, and again in March 2010, to show his film.

In January 2009, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ordered Wilders' prosecution for "incitement to hatred and discrimination." Wilders was acquitted of these charges on 23rd of June 2011.

Alessandra Mussolini is the founder and former leader of the Italian national conservative political party Social Action, and since 2008 has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian Parliament, for the ruling People of Freedom party. She made enhanced appearances on the political scene in 2011 expressing displeasure with the growing number of Libyan refugees trying to enter Europe via the Italian island Lampedusa and has been repeatedly trying to correct her Grandfather's image from the past. "Until recently the word fascist was considered shameful. Fortunately, that period has passed. In fact, there is now a reassessment of how much grandpa Benito did for Italy," Mussolini told Newsweek in 1992.

It comes as no real surprise that Germany also has its homemade oddballs. One strong candidate is Thilo Sarrazin and in 2010 Thilo, the politician felt appointed to publish a book titled Germany Abolishes Itself. Thilo's book is a hodgepodge of dim, hateful statements, unworthy of attention and a true embarrassment for a member of the Social Democratic Party which is traditionally slightly more open-minded than Merkel's Christian Democratic Party. In an ongoing rant he denounces the failure of Germany's post-war immigration policy, sparking a nationwide controversy about the costs and benefits of multiculturalism.

Integration requires effort from those who are to be integrated. I will not show respect for anyone that is not making that effort. I do not have to acknowledge anyone who lives by welfare, denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides that welfare, refuses to care for the education of his children, and constantly produces new little headscarf-girls. This holds true for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arab population in Berlin.

Not only does the Social Democratic Party not exclude Thilo from membership, his book, published at the end of August 2010, became the most highly sold book on politics by a German-language author in a decade, with overall sales hitting 1.1 million copies. The first editions sold out within a matter of days.

Thilo's clumsy statement in an interview with the German paper Welt am Sonntag that, "all Jews share a certain gene like all Basques share a certain gene that distinguishes these from other people," doesn't really help anyone take him any more seriously.

As mentioned above, in October of 2010 Chancellor Merkel happily jumped on the bandwagon and declared multiculturalism as a failed experiment, obviously neglecting the fact that Germany invited the foreign workers into its home in the late 60's, true to the motto that no German shall soil their hands through inferior labor.

At the same time Germany's prestigious Friedrich-Ebert foundation is releasing its biyearly (!) study of "Right Extremism in Germany," according to which every tenth German is longing for the guidance of a Fuehrer and every third would like to send foreigners back to wherever they came from.

For the first time, the authors also inquired about the sentiments Germans are nourishing towards Muslims. 58.4% percent of interviewees agree the practice of Islam in Germany should be considerably constrained.

And not surprisingly, since anti-Semitism has been a steady companion in Germany, although some right extreme organizations now claim to embrace Judaism and prefer hating Islam, 17% of respondents also believe that "Jews still have too much influence."

Right extremist attacks, xenophobia, the diligent building of neo Nazi networks in East and West Germany are old news, numerous studies have been released, but disturbing political sentiment toward the unfamiliar that is sometimes positioned in the heart of society has the potential to catalyze those efforts.

Who would be seriously bewildered by the effect this mix of toxic attitudes has as a result?

Jersey City Museum of Russian Art (MoRA) is Worth Crossing the Hudson

2011-09-20T18:47:47-04:00

Do you know this feeling, when you unexpectedly stumble upon a hidden treasure of physical or non-physical nature and it fundamentally changes, but completes, your day? In this instance this author took an inquisitive peek into the windows of the building that is 80 Grand Street, across from Paulus Hook Park in Downtown Jersey City, and decided to find out what the auspiciously illuminated colors mean.

Entering the elegantly renovated rooms of the Museum of Russian Art (MORA), the secret is revealed quickly. The pieces hanging on the walls show a refined sense for classical painting technique, extensive schooling, an eye for historical references, and a strong feel for European art-symbolism. The Museum of Russian Art (MORA) is exhibiting two contemporary Russian/Eastern European artists right now that are taking the viewer on a stunning travel to strangely familiar places...

Voskanjan Andrey Valerevich, in artistic circles better known as Gasoyan, was born in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1981. A former republic of the Soviet Union, Armenia is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Gasoyan graduated from the Yerevan State Art Academy in 2004 and then continued studying with the prestigious Moscow State Art V.I. Surikov College, focusing on monumental painting. Although Gasoyan is constantly producing artwork, he is also passing on his skills and knowledge by teaching at the Academic School of Design in Moscow. In 2008 he was named the laureate of the Art-Week Moscow competition and his works are appreciated by private collectors and galleries all over Europe and Russia.

Gasoyan noticeably received his main art schooling after the collapse of the Soviet empire. His education made him a young Russian painter with a strong appreciation for the great European masters of the earlier 20th century, away from the doctrine of Socialist Realism that influenced, voluntarily and involuntarily, generations of Russian painters. Keeping in mind that the oppression of artistic freedom in the Soviet Union generated an entire arts-movement. The Soviet Nonconformist Art with formidable representatives such as Serov, or avant-garde expressionist Anatoly Zverev.

And to create a haven for these nonconformist artists, who often fled the Soviet Union or found collectors outside their home country, in the U.S., the Museum of Russian Art in Jersey City opened its doors on September 15, 1980 and has been a place of art, politics and intellectual exchange for thirty one years.

The young, Russian artist Gasoyan borrows. The ability to express human emotions with basic brush strokes from symbolist painter Paul Gauguin, the sometimes frantic approach of Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch's undeniable predilection for themes such as love, fear, death and anxiety, Wassily Kandinsky's precision and strong intuition for colors. What turns these elements combined into "a Gasoyan" is the artist's sense for space, surprising perspectives, his unconventional use of color, and the brave ease with which he introduces loneliness to his artwork.

The current exhibition at the Museum of Russian art is so inspirational, because director Margo Grant understands to bring together two different, but complementary schools of thought.

Udita Leberg-Shapiro was born in the western Ukraine city of Uzghorod in 1955 and went through early furtherance of her obvious artistic talent by her parents, and the Soviet government. The Soviet Ministry of Foreign Cultural Affairs in Moscow featured her prowess in 1965 with a solo exhibition and named her a child prodigy during a press conference. She went to art schools in Moscow, Budapest, New York and Jerusalem, immigrated to the USA in 1974, lives now in Fairlawn, New Jersey and is a devoted art and music teacher.

Leberg's pieces are of profound elegance, a deep, very timeless connection to the "old world" and an extraordinary skill to express life and liveliness in somber colors. Talking to her at the opening, she seems almost apologetic about the fact that she would have loved to use more and brighter colors, earlier in her artistic career, but the political circumstances in her home country taught her to stay within artistic boundaries. "I would have loved to paint like Joan Miró, the way he uses colors, but we had very strict teachers." Leberg portrays the story of an outstandingly gifted young woman that learned early to follow the rules, set by an oppressive regime, and still, "I did my own paintings on the side, but I couldn't show them at school," she smiles astutely.

The exhibition is open every day from 2 p.m. - 6 p.m. until September 25.
For more information: www.moramuseum.org

Remembering the Holocaust Through 'Scenic Memory'

2011-05-02T13:34:43-04:00

On this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, psychologist Dr. Kurt Gruenberg of the Sigmund-Freud-Institute in Frankfurt, Germany talks of the sometimes disturbing force of unconscious memory. Gruenberg has been working for the Sigmund-Freud-Institute since 1990, he also heads the initiative "9th of November" and established a meeting group for survivors of the Shoah in Germany.

Lia Petridis Maiello: How does the impact of the Holocaust trauma manifests itself within the second generation of survivors?

Dr. Kurt Gruenberg: We, at the Sigmund-Freud-Institute in Frankfurt, Germany developed a concept which we call "scenic memory" of the Shoah. That means that survivors communicate their memories not necessarily verbally, but that the passing on of the trauma happens primarily unconsciously. We are looking at the way survivors are establishing relationships, nonverbal reactions during conversations, such as a sigh, a shout, crying, tears in certain situations. That way, long-term effects psychological and psychosocial, develop in people, who have not experienced national-socialism. It manifests itself in survivors by showing extreme difficulties in certain areas of life, such as free evolvement or following their own impulses. Progeny of Holocaust survivors have a very strong bond with their parents and often experience anxiety when separating from them. They have the feeling that they shouldn't leave their parents behind who went through so much and obviously they fear the confrontation this separation would cause.

Another aspect is very well described in Jean Amery's book, At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor of Auschwitz and Its Realities, where he describes that Holocaust survivors suffer from a loss in basic trust. I call this phenomenon "contaminated generativity." Survivors often mediate contaminated generativity by dealing with vitality, children, with new lives on one hand, and on the other hand with their extreme trauma. Children of survivors react strongly to questions of parenthood, which is part of acquiring adulthood, by either having the mission to produce Jewish children or being afraid of having children at all, since Jewish children are considered to be particularly endangered.

And then the next question occurs: Who are the partners of the survivor's children? I am particularly interested in the situation in Germany, the land of the perpetrators, where the partners are often non-Jewish Germans. That fact causes very special conflicts, which I am describing in my book, Love after Auschwitz - The second generation in Germany.

LPM: Can you describe these specific conflicts?

KG: In general relationships are always individual and depend on different factors. But relationships between Jews of the second generation and non-Jewish Germans on the other, confront two families. One represents the victims, the other the perpetrators or followers. On the Jewish side we are dealing with deep distrust and on the non-Jewish German side a feeling of, "Is this person not permanently going to raise accusations, if not open and direct, at least indirect?" This confrontation leads to severe conflicts, because you are questioning loyalty towards the respective family.

LPM: How do you distinguish the reprocessing of the Holocaust by survivors in Germany and the USA?

KG: Survivors who emigrated to the U.S. have in most cases also lost their relatives during the Shoah. Their families were murdered leaving them the only ones who survived, obviously extremely traumatized. On top of that they lost what they might have called their home country before the persecution. Jews who fled Germany to the U.S. after 1945 often show relief that they were able to leave the old world of persecution and are under the impression they live in a more democratic world now. But of course, in the U.S. just like anywhere else, the question occurs of how far the Shoah matters today. It still seems to matter quite a lot in Germany. In fact, it is very interesting to see the manifestation of cultural conflicts in Germany. Volatile situations and quarrels occur. If I may remind you of the peace settlement over the SS graves in Bittburg during the 1980s, the Historikerstreit in Germany, or the peace price speech of Martin Walser that led to a heavy conflict with Ignaz Bubis, the former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany who was scandalized by Walser's speech and rightfully so. (The German author Martin Walser pointed out in his speech from October 1998, that "the Nazi felonies are abused by certain people to hurt the Germans or to support certain political claims. Also, people who constantly make the Holocaust a subject of discussion are feeling morally superior. But Auschwitz should not reprobate to some sort of moral cudgel in particular because it is of such fatal significance.")

By reference to these examples it is interesting to see how the old conflicts are instantly reestablished, which leads me to a different question, I wonder about sometimes -- why I, as a Jew, have not left Germany a long time ago. It's probably for the same reasons why so many other survivors stayed. In a sense we maintained a close proximity to the deed and a loyalty to those who were killed.

LPM: Do you feel there is a change in Holocaust remembrance by non-Jewish, younger Germans?

KG: I believe that a normalcy accrued by being able to say "Germany" again, rather than "Federal Republic of Germany." That happened after the reunification of East and West Germany. Up to that point the division of Germany was perceived as "punishment" for the persecution of the German Jews, although that is historically obviously incorrect. The division was in a way an indicator for that, which than disappeared with the reunification. Suddenly, the "children of war" were the center of attention. A lot of people in the German general public suggested that the Jews and the US Americans were censoring, and the Germans weren't able to talk about "the war." That is only half the truth.

I believe indeed, that there was not much attention in post-war Germany for the children, whose parents and relatives were victims of bombardments. At the same time there was endless talk about "the war." One could gather the impression that the Germans or their children were the victims of the war. Just imagine the creation of terms such as "Bomb Holocaust." It is disastrous to bring the victims of the Shoah so close to victims of military force. That is an illegitimate change in remembrance. So I am trying to resolve these parallelizations and equalizations with my work.

LPM: Is there a general psychological effect in the German society from a non-accounting of the past?

KG: Raul Hilberg coined a phrase that says, "The Holocaust in Germany is initially family history." That leads to the question for the non-Jewish perpetrators in how far their own relatives were involved in the national-socialist society. Now, in order to achieve real involvement you would have to find perpetrators or followers who are openly talking about their participation. Concealment is a common practice in perpetrator/follower families, which has an impact on their descendants, because they didn't really know who they loved as their fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles. These kids often just experienced a certain atmosphere, which later led to many questions and then the student riots in 1968. And while there was silence the offspring had to rely on speculations or feelings and many of them were not interested in seeing, because it is obviously painful to see the murderer in your parents or grandparents.

So, let's say you group the descendants of the perpetrators on one side and the offspring of Jews on the other then I would assess that one group is unconsciously afraid of being the victims of persecution again, while the other side is taking into consideration the potential of repeated perpetration in certain situations of conflict. All these are unconscious occurrences. But to see that in certain controversial situations you might show similar behavior to that of your parents is painful. In order to work on these problems descendants of perpetrators often see a psychologist. Then it is interesting to see, if the therapist has the same blind spots as their clients. On the other hand there is a lot of German, non-Jewish involvement in Holocaust remembrance, so much that a lot of U.S. American Jews were perplexed when I visited New York City recently.

LPM: How do you think reconditioning of the Shoah could happen in the future?

KG: That requires the willingness to find out about things that might be very painful on both sides. It also requires talking about anti-Semitism today, how it manifests itself and that is very difficult, because the world is driven by so many other severe problems, if you look to the Middle East or Japan. I keep working on it, but the failure of it is sometimes a bitter experience that I know very well about.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Member of the European Parliament, can't accept the German "Nope" to Libya

2011-03-25T16:29:58-04:00

Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a German politician, active in France and Germany and a member of the European Parliament. His German-Jewish parents had fled Nazism in 1933 to France and Cohn-Bendit was born in Montauban in 1945, where he spent his entire childhood.

Cohn-Bendit turned into a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France, which brought him the nickname "Dany le Rouge" alluding to his politics -- and the color of his hair.

Now "Dany le Rouge" is slowly but surely turning into "Dany le Vert" being the co-president of the "European Greens-European Free Alliance" in the European Parliament.

In 2010, he was involved in founding JCall, an advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the European parliament on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East.

Charismatic and candid, he has been a spokesman for the disenfranchised all his life and is currently not very impressed with the German veto regarding the military operation "Odyssey Dawn" in Libya.

Lia Petridis Maiello: The French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, was quoted on Monday with the statement that, "Europe's joint security and foreign policies are dead." What do you think about that statement?

Daniel Cohn-Bendit: "What I think about that statement? I think that times like this leave blood on the carpet and it will take time to fix it."

LPM: What are the reasons for Nikolas Sarkozy to strongly support a military intervention in Libya?

DCB: "I believe that he came to the conclusion that an intervention was absolutely necessary. He wanted to prevent a blood bath in Bengasi, and as a result, that the world further have to deal with Gaddafi. Another reason for his approach is that as far as domestic policy is concerned, he is somewhat stricken and he wanted to show that he is still capable of politically complex decision making."

LPM: Why do you support military intervention?

DCB: "I would like to argue along the lines of Israeli pacifist Uri Avnery. He says, if you are confronted with a massacre like this and you don't intervene, you are taking responsibility for the outcome. Or to put it into the terminology of the United Nations, 'The responsibility to protect,' occurs."

LPM: How do you explain that German chancellor Angela Merkel is disproving of the intervention, meanwhile she was very critical of Gerhard Schroeder's veto back in the day regarding the second war in Iraq?

DCB: "Angela Merkel is Germany's great disappointment. She has no political orientation. She is a callous strategist, and obviously not very good at it. She has a tendency to change things around right before elections are coming up. She denied support for Greece because there were federal state elections in North-Rhine-Westphalia lying ahead, then she switched on nuclear energy as a result of a defeat in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and now she is playing the great pacifist with her foreign minister. It shows you very well that she is a technician of political power, but the spine is missing."

LPM: What long-term effects is the German veto going to have on the international political stage?

DCB: "Well, it got even worse with Germany's rejection to organize the naval blockade together with NATO in order to exercise the arms embargo. Get this, we are in this absurd position that the Turkish government decided to support the embargo and the only ones who stay out of it are the Germans. That is really ludicrous! That will of course weaken Germany's position in the world. I also believe that nobody will take this foreign minister that seriously in the future."

LPM: Germany's permanent seat in the Security Council of the United Nations is going to be jeopardized?

DCB: "You can kiss that permanent seat Good-Bye! If you don't take responsibility in a situation like this you deserve a seat in the International Fishing Association."

LPM: Chancellor Angela Merkel asked yesterday for an immediate stop of Libyan oil imports to Europe. Is that realistic?

DCB: "Well, she has to travel to Rome first and convince Silvio Berlusconi. That should be great fun. More than 30 percent of Italy's oil is from Libya. Besides, I do believe that we shouldn't import any more oil from Gadaffi, but certainly from the rebels in case they are initiating a democratic process in Libya. We obviously should support that."

LPM: Merkel also suggested possibly hosting Libyan refugees in Germany in the future.

DCB: "I am also skeptical about that statement. To this day Europe did not agree to share the burden and distribute refugees to all European countries. So, I don't believe that Germany will agree to host refugees. That would be a political position Merkel vehemently rejected only yesterday. The Green party suggested hosting refugees temporarily like we did with fugitives from Bosnia back in the day, and the conservatives said no. So, just forget about these short term statements before the elections!"

LPM: The opinions regarding military intervention in Libya are also divided in the U.S. Former ambassador to Saudi-Arabia, Chas Freeman criticized that the United States demonstrated indifference towards the Arab world by intervening so late.

DCB: "The Europeans are also guilty of indifference. Obviously the world would have saved itself some troubles with an earlier intervention. We wouldn't have been on the brink of a massacre in Bengasi. I think that US Defense Secretary Gates and the US Army are brassed off. During international crisis the USA usually pull the chestnuts out of the fire - in order to be punished for it afterwards. I think that Afghanistan and Iraq irritated the US Army to a great extent."

LPM: The speaker of the House, John Boehner, framed the criticism of the American right in a letter to president Obama on Wednesday. He is missing clear objectives for Libya. Is it that simple to formulate those objectives at this point?

DCB: "No. That letter is foolish. I think the mandate is a milestone in the history of the United Nations. For the first time the responsibility to protect is being implemented. The goal is that the Libyan army does not harm their own people with tanks and planes. The goal is not regime change. That is, and can only be, the responsibility of the Libyan people. That is a very clear goal as far as I'm concerned. So, we will have to wait and see if indeed, in the next few weeks or months, the Libyan people will be on the streets and demonstrate for a regime change. Thereby the allies are forcing a political solution by supporting parts of the Libyan people and fighting the Libyan army."

LPM: Only in 2003 the US government, at the time a republican government, initiated a war without a UN mandate in Iraq only to find out that there were indeed no weapons of mass destruction to be found. How do you assess the sudden skepticism of the US conservatives?

DCB: "The current political opposition to President Obama is an unintelligent one. If Obama had decided to not intervene, I guarantee you they would have made a big deal out of that. That's a bit Pavlov-like. As far as I can tell the political opposition in the US is acting predominantly by Pavlovian reactions, without substance and without drawing lessons from history."

LPM: In comparison to his predecessor, George W. Bush, President Obama is operating under UN mandate. Is that the return to multilateral policy, or, as Obama put it, "A way to share the costs?"

DCB: "If he said that, his explanation falls short. This UN resolution is a milestone as I explained earlier, and it turned UN policies back to being the core of political decision making. That is fundamental!"

LPM: With so much political calculation going on, in Europe and in the US, one could entertain the idea that it is less about the democratic process in Libya and its people, but more about the preservation of power and political positioning.

DCB: "If it was about the preservation of power, the allies would have stayed out of Libya. All in all, I believe that the West is completely overwhelmed with the goings-on in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Who would have believed around Christmas last year that only three months later, Mubarak and Ben Ali are history?"

LPM: There are different opinions on the outcome of the military intervention in Libya. One is that of Wladimir Tschamow, former Russian ambassador to Libya, who is painting a rather dark picture of Libya's future. The military intervention could destabilize the country for a long time and turn it into an unsafe palladium, comparable to Iraq or Somalia. According to his view, Gaddafi is capable of stringing the allies along for months and be sure of the support of his people. What do you believe the future in Libya will look like?

DCB: "Hang on, let me look into my crystal ball. I think it depends. If the majority of people in Tripoli will be able to overcome their fear, I absolutely understand that they are in fear by the way, but it seems to be the only way to put Gaddafi out of power: An aligned action between allies and the people of Libya. If that doesn't happen, there will in my opinion, be a separation of the country."

The Coverage of the Catastrophe in Japan by U.S. Media is a Disaster on its Own

2011-03-14T12:11:38-04:00

The fears about a nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima power plant after a tsunami hit Japan last Friday requires an all-embracing, around-the-clock-analysis by the media outlets in the U.S. to keep the American public informed. An obligation that comes, (if you as the contemporary cynic gave up on the educational mandate television used to have), with the charges of about $60,00 a month by provider Comcast, as one example. An obligation that also comes with the fact that we, as a paying audience have to endure ongoing, hebetudinous commercial breaks that remind us that we are determined to be consumers foremost and intelligible humans only subsequently. For the first three days major U.S. TV stations did not meet this obligation.

The global consequences of the ongoing catastrophe are yet unclear, but the current nuclear push by President Barack Obama, environmental organizations and Republicans and Democrats in Congress for clean energy alternatives in the U.S. is already at issue. The debate is now taking place in many other countries, Germany being one of them. Here, Generation Facebook is bringing back the '80s "Nuclear energy - No, thanks!" sticker, a big seller after the horrors of Chernobyl in 1986 and the threat of nuclear deterrence by the former superpower Soviet Union and U.S.

A piece by Michael Calderone and Joe Pompeo on Yahoo news Friday afternoon entitled "Cooper, Amanpour among TV journalists to Japan" caught my eye after I had checked into major US TV stations -- CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox -- without noteworthy results on a Japan update the morning after. In the interim, CNN is relying on NHK TV, Japan's state-funded broadcaster, which yesterday officially opened its news feed to Northern American TV stations in order to inform Japanese expatriates who live in the U.S. sufficiently. CNN is also broadcasting YouTube material and snippets of the so called "IReporters", where people without any journalistic training, can share their stories.

Calderone and Pompeo reported that "U.S. broadcast and cable networks, some of which were short-staffed Friday morning in Japan, are now sending top anchors and correspondents."

Convinced that a major news station like CNN would have an on the field correspondent network for disaster reporting, I had to realize they have, but not for an American audience that happens to pay a cable provider that doesn't carry CNN International, like, for example Comcast. CNN-reporter Kyung Lah is on the ground for CNN International, reporting at first over the phone, but nevertheless accounting the events to an international audience of 200 nations worldwide, not so much to her fellow countrymen.

We, as the U.S. audience have to rely on celebrity reporters like Anderson Cooper and understand that it just takes time to fly him out to Japan with a Mardi Gras hangover to share his tears with the world. CNN is, by the way, the same news station that, according to the Financial Times, ended 2009 with about $500m in operating profit for the year, its highest in its history.

Meanwhile, BBC News, the principal state-owned public service broadcaster in the United Kingdom launched several online components for its coverage of Friday morning's massive earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami in the Pacific Ocean. Its coverage includes a live events page, featuring a video stream of the latest news; a wave map to help predict the height of waves throughout the region; a video page offering clips of the earthquake's impact across Japan; and up-to-date analysis and updates on a reports page with a lot of original footage, provided by on sites journalists.

The BBC also broadcasts to every household in the UK for an annual fee of $242, which includes TV, radio and online services. In comparison the U.S. viewer is paying an annual $ 720 (!) with Comcast that secludes him and her from a substantial news information flow on a catastrophe of staggering impact for the entire world.

'I Read, I Think, I Paint'

2011-03-08T11:04:06-05:00

Once upon a time the artist tended to also be an intellectual of wide, general knowledge with an impact on society in the fields of fine arts, politics, journalism and education. Now the smart phone is replacing decades of everyone's accumulated knowledge at the touch of a button. It is the more fascinating to meet a representative of the simply-beautiful, old ways.
78-year-old Ruffo Caselli is a humble genius with a dial-operated telephone, only one in number in his fifth floor apartment in a 17th century building in Ovada, Piedmont, Northern Italy. The population of Ovada amounted in June 2008 was 11,941 citizens total. Caselli does not posess a computer either.

One could call him a technophobe, if he didn't happen to be the very antithesis. Caselli has been painting microchips, their impact on society and interpersonal, human relations since the 1950s, foreboding the tremendous impact these electronic particles consisting of small crystals of silicon semiconductors will have in the very near future. We are now surrounded by microchips in wristwatches, microwave ovens, cell phones, garage door openers or space shuttles.

And though humanity created a technological universe, the search for meaning continues and even seems to grow stronger with the increasing establishment of the technical life style. As Caselli puts it: "Technology imitates life, chips are us."

With an invitation by the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco to visit the West Coast of the United States in September this year, Ruffo Caselli will leave his home country the first time in decades for the retrospective "Fifty Years of Microchips," curated by Carmen Gallo of New York City.

Lia Petridis Maiello: When did you develop the idea to paint microchips?

Ruffo Caselli: As soon as I read the news, announcing their invention. I was always artistically inspired by technology and innovations, new and old, and before I started painting microchips I showed human-like transistors, calculators, TV sets and Integrated circuits. They inspired me for years. When I learned about microchips, I thought: "They invented integrated circuits, now they should reinvent humans." I saw it as metaphysics married to physics, a new frontier of our mind. I felt we had entered a new era where the physical and the spiritual merged. The analogy between the new invention and our way of being became clearer to me. I started to design something I would call human-biocomputers in the late 1960s, treating computers as an extension of the human nervous system. "You will never sell a painting," an infuriated gallery owner in Milano screamed at me. Nevertheless, my work has been shown in many cultural institutions in Italy, in well over 120 non-commercial venues.

LPM: Why do you think you had the urge to express yourself artistically through microchips?

RC: The world is not the same -- and we are not the same. We no longer see the world as we used to see it, let's say, 50 years ago. It seems to me that our mental and even our biological evolution is closely tied to the evolution of computer programs, they are evolving simultaneously. The leading technological advances of the 20th century were based on computer programs. Thirty years ago I was painting humans like robots, now I paint robots that look exactly like humans: an Italian journalist wrote that my robots have mutated into humans. My work focuses on several interrelated topics: personal identity in a technological world, values, relativism and philosophy of mind, the phenomenological view of consciousness, and, ultimately -- the loneliness of mankind.

LPM: How important are microchips today?

RC: They can "make us or break us." They are present in every aspect of our society: it is my hope that they will be used to promote world peace and to continue to solve global problems. We need them now more than ever, since we have become so co-dependent.

LPM: Who was your inspiration in the early days?

RC: My first heroes were the great men of the Renaissance. I was born in the year of 1932 in Florence, Tuscany, in the very same building where the extraordinary genius Leonardo da Vinci once lived for a while. When I was a little boy, I read all I could about him. I considered him my inspiration: he was not only a painter; he was also a mathematician, a scientist, an inventor. I started to draw when I was very young and my first drawings were copies of Leonardo's inventions. That's when I first discovered technology.

My other teacher was the early Renaissance painter Giotto, a master of design. Very early I studied his way to draw figures, according to nature and the golden proportion. If you observe his work, at a glance you see the whole picture, the whole drama.

At 17, after studying at the Technological Institute in Milano, I went to work in Egypt with an archaeological expedition: My responsibility was to draw the findings and to take note of the explanations of the Egyptologists. I was in awe with what I saw: pyramids, in their monumental, dramatic scale, revealed impressive engineering and a refined technology. In my opinion, this seemed impossible to achieve thousands of years ago. I entered hidden chambers, burial grounds, took notes of figures and inscriptions, I became a "human camera." My "clones" of the 1970s and 1980s are definitely inspired by those elusive Egyptian figures.

In the 1950s, I was inspired also by the work of Wassily Kandinsky: he wanted to create an art of spiritual renewal, believing that humans have lost touch with spirituality, being concerned with material things. Each and every one of my paintings wants to be, at least for me, about spiritual renewal.

LPM: How does your lifestyle, which I learned is simple, impact your art?

RC: My life has always been, and still is, simple and spare, almost Spartan. I lived and worked in Milano most of my life. Now I live and work in a small town in Northern Italy.

I am alone, I eat simple food, I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I am not concerned with public life, I never owned a car. In my home, built at the time of Leonardo da Vinci, I live exactly as he did, except for a TV set and a phone that I don't like to use. I don't even have central heat; I never owned a microwave, a dishwasher, or a computer, not even a refrigerator.

I do not allow myself to be distracted: I read, I think and I paint: These are my luxuries. I get up very early, I walk a few miles, then I go to a neighborhood cafe for espresso, buy a couple of newspapers and a book and go home to read and paint. Often I'm inspired by the news, by new technologies or inventions, or by a phrase heard as I'm drinking coffee.

LPM: Please explain Cybernetic Existentialism.

RC: The name appeared a quarter of a century ago in New York, at Spazio Italia Gallery in Soho, where I had a show of my paintings titled "Chips Are Us." Cybernetic Existentialism came up in a conversation between two gallerists: Leo Castelli and my curator, Carmen Gallo. Carmen said: "Ruffo is an Existentialist and a Cybernetician." Leo responded: "Cybernetic Existentialism". The focus of that exhibition and of my art in general, is an essential/existential observation of the nature of humans in relationship to contemporary technology and of the ethical demands we are facing. In my paintings appeared cyborgs, hybrids of computer-humans, and intelligent robots with silicon hearts. Decades ago, I was playing with the same metaphors; the difference is that in the '70s and '80s I painted humans like robots. Now my robots are exactly like humans. It was and it is conceptual work, an exploration of the implications of possibilities, extremely powerful for my imagination because, since childhood, I always had the fantasy to be an inventor and I let my imagination do the rest.

My subject is always the human condition and now, as we speak, I feel we behave as if we were the last generation to inhabit the planet.

It is my sincere wish and struggle (with my art, of course), that technology could prevent the final battle, Armageddon, disastrous not only for the human race but or all life-forms. It would be my proudest achievement if, with my art, I could inspire feelings of peace and love to our fellow humans.

LPM: What is the meaning of life to you?

RC: I believe in God, I live according to ethical principles, and I still search for answers about life and its mysteries. Most of them are being revealed, but we still have more questions than answers.

Personally, I always wanted to do something to leave a mark for future generations, even if will be my paintings, where I recorded not only the greatness of technology, but the frailty of human condition, including mine, my loneliness, expressed with humorous tones. Often, to soften the subject, I give the painting a sweet title or an ironic one, but my subjects are serious.

LPM: What is your stance on modern technology (Internet, iPad, etc.) and its impact on modern human communication?

RC: Ironically, I don't own an Ipad, I don't use the internet. Something very funny happened to me recently, at the coffee shop. A young boy greeted me very cordially, I introduced myself and he responded: "I know who you are, you are the inventor of iPad!" referring to my early paintings where the human figure was always filled with little squares -- computer disks and integrated circuits. I could not convince him that I had never even held an iPad in my hands. Definitely, in real life I'm left behind, and one day I will probably buy one. I think the first thing I will do is to open it to see what is inside.

When I pass by an internet café and I see people communicating with machines and ignoring each others, I think that computers, Ipads, and cell phones, are answers to a need for companionship, ideas, answers that another human cannot give: they fill a vacuum. The idea of akasha and akasic records tormented me for years: the place where, everything that ever happened is recorded. Perhaps the answer is the World Wide Web!

LPM: How do you communicate and why?

RC: I'm trying to communicate with my paintings. I'm not social at all. To me it is much easier to paint than to talk about my paintings. I occupy only a little space in the universe, but I would like to communicate ethical values; that will be my proudest achievement if I could communicate a reflection on the human condition and an encouragement to promote world peace.

LPM: Should artists be political?

RC: Artists raise challenges. In my opinion, an artist is always political.
I'm a student of life, my subject is human consciousness in evolution, and since I don't paint with a sale in mind, I take the liberty to be free.

This interview was translated from the Italian language by Carmen Gallo.

More information about the artist is provided by the journal "Cybernetics and Human Knowing."

"Baseball Is America" -- An Interview With Lawrence Baldassaro About Baseball and the Italian-American Experience

2011-03-04T13:19:05-05:00

Lawrence Baldassaro, professor emeritus of Italian at the University of Wisconcin-Milwaukee offers with his latest book, Beyond DiMaggio, a profound analysis on how baseball links to the Italian-American experience. Publishers Weekly, the international news website of book publishing and bookselling writes about Beyond DiMaggio:

Lawrence Baldassaro explores the role Italian-Americans have played in America's pastime. He offers a straightforward "chronological history of the evolution of Italian Americans in professional baseball" from Ed Abbaticchio, who made his debut in 1897, to such recent players as Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio. Baldassaro is going beyond recapping careers and doling out statistics by exploring deeper topics like the circumstances that made Northern California (birthplace of the DiMaggios) a hotbed of Italian-American hardball talent. He analyzes such sociopolitical factors as how discrimination and family obligations limited the number of Italian players in the first third of the 20th century, and how the changing perceptions of Italian-Americans led to a postwar book of ballplayers whose last names ended in vowels. Baldassaro brings a great deal of affection and merriment to his storytelling--whether he is replaying Cookie Lavagetto's and Al Gionfriddo's exploits in the 1947 World Series or exploring the sporting and cultural significance of Joe DiMaggio.

Baldassaro dedicates his book to his four immigrant grandparents, "for their courage and their gift of opportunity."

1) Please, explain the impact baseball had on your life and when did you discover the passion for the game?

I've been passionate about baseball for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid in the late 40s and early 50s, just about everybody played baseball; it was the undisputed national pastime in a way that is hard for most people to imagine today when there are so many other leisure activities available and several other sports have become wildly popular. I can't explain why I felt so strongly about the game at such an early age; it just came to me naturally. As for the game's impact on my life, I began playing on a team when I was ten and continued through high school, one year of college, and one year of semi-professional baseball. Playing the game simply gave me great joy and I never felt more comfortable or engaged than I did on a baseball field.

I also think baseball was one way for me to identify with American culture. I grew up in an American home. My mother and her mother (who lived with us) were both born in Italy, and my father's parents were Italian immigrants. Although we didn't live in an Italian neighborhood, most of our family friends were Italian. My grandmother would speak Italian to me, but I would answer in English. At that time, people my age did not want to be "ethnic"; we wanted to be American, whatever that meant. Outside the home, my world was American, whether in the street playing with my friends or at school. And because baseball was the American pastime, the game itself was a symbol of American values. In fact, since the turn of the twentieth century, journalists and sociologists had been touting baseball as a symbol of the American melting pot.

2) What is the secret of its success?

Baseball is one of the oldest and most enduring social institutions in America. It became immensely popular in the mid-19th century, before the Civil War. Therefore, its history is richer and deeper than that of any other sport. And more than any other sport, baseball links generations. It's a game that's handed down from father to sons and, more recently, to daughters as well. I inherited my love of the game from my parents (see answer to question #15), and I passed it on to my son.

3) Why is it not catching on in other nations like soccer is?

Baseball has not caught on everywhere, but it has become immensely popular in two parts of the world: Latin America and Asia, especially in Japan. In fact, Latinos now make up about 20% of all players in Major League Baseball, and the percentage is higher than that in the minor leagues. And the growing number of Japanese players who are coming into the Major Leagues are reported on by large numbers of Japanese journalists who report on them throughout the season.

4) How long did you research Beyond DiMaggio?

I began serious research in June 1999 when I spent two weeks at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown as a scholar in residence. In the course of my research over the years, I interviewed more than 50 players, coaches, managers and executives.

5) Have you written a baseball book before?

I began writing about baseball in 1980. My first book, which I edited, was The Ted Williams Reader, published by Simon and Schuster in 1992. I then co-edited The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity (Southern Illinois U. Press, 2002) and edited Ted Williams: Reflections on a Splendid Life(Northeastern U. Press, 2003).

6) Please explain the connection between baseball and the Italian-American experience?

Not only for Italians but for other immigrant groups as well, baseball was one of the ways newcomers to America learned what it meant to be American. As I mentioned above, journalists and sociologists liked to identify baseball as a major force in the acculturation of immigrants and their children. In the book I quote Ralph Fasanella, the well-known primitive painter born in New York in 1914 to Italian immigrant parents. He said, "We [Italians] were foreigners. We were the ginzos from the other side, and the only thing that made the connection was the baseball game. Baseball was America." I know that in the case of my grandmother's brother who came to the U.S. as a teenager early in the 20th century, he was able to relate to non-Italians primarily because he was a baseball fan; that was his passport to acceptance in America.

In the case of Italian American players, their success, beginning with Tony Lazzeri, a star for the Yankees between 1926 and 1937, instilled in first and second-generation Italian Americans a great sense of pride. I maintain that Lazzeri and later Joe DiMaggio did more to enhance the public perception of Italian Americans than anyone else before them.

7) Would you mind explaining the "spiritual quest for home" and baseball and is it still valid today?

Here I borrow from A. Bartlett Giamatti, who gave up his position as president of Yale University to become president of the National League and then Commissioner of Major League Baseball. He wrote: "For what is baseball, and indeed much of the American experience, about but looking for home? The concept of home has a particular resonance for a nation of immigrants, all of whom left one home to seek another." I suspect this concept is still valid for those who come to America in search of a new home.

8) You are describing in detail the discrimination Italian-Americans had to endure in the 19th century. Are there still resentments against Italian-Americans?

Certainly the kinds of discrimination that Italian Americans encountered on first coming to America are no longer evident as Italian Americans have largely assimilated into mainstream culture. However, Italian Americans are still subject to the more subtle bias evident in the ongoing media depiction of them as mafiosi (e.g, The Godfather and The Sopranos) and dim-witted "greasers" (The Jersey Shore).

9) How would you describe the contemporary immigrant experience to the U.S. from, for example, Mexico?

I really don't feel qualified to comment on this with any expertise.

10) How do you explain the Italian-American success in baseball?

I don't think there is any specific explanation for Italian American success in baseball that sets them apart from those in other ethnic groups that found success in professional baseball. By the early 20th century, when Italian Americans were coming to America in large numbers, the children of German and Irish immigrants were dominant in Major League Baseball. Like those who came before them, Italian American boys were driven to succeed in baseball because it was one of the few avenues open to those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

11) Is baseball still an integrating institution in U.S. society?

Yes, but there are still obstacles. Unlike previous players of ethnic backgrounds who grew up in the U.S., foreigners coming into baseball today are those who immigrate directly from their native countries specifically to play professionally. As I said above these are primarily Latinos and Asians. They face numerous barriers such as language and cultural differences in trying to adapt to their life as professional players and to American life in general. An excellent depiction of these difficulties is the 2008 film Sugar, which depicts the struggles faced by a Dominican player trying to make it in the minor leagues in America.

12) How do you believe is the Italian-American culture viewed by contemporary/young Italians back in Italy?

That depends on their upbringing and their awareness of life in America. Those who are well-educated and/or have relatives in the U.S. probably have a better understanding of the range and depth of Italian American culture, being aware that most Italian Americans have college degrees and at least some measure of economic success, and that some are artists and writers, etc. Other Italians with little if any connection with Italian Americans are probably more influenced by the American television shows they see in Italy (e.g, Happy Days and others) that portray Italian American culture in a less flattering way.

13) What impact did baseball have on your family?

I inherited my love of baseball from my parents, both of whom were fans. (As I said above, one of the appeals of baseball has always been its ability to link generations.) Actually, my Italian-born mother, who came to America when she was four, was even more of a fan. I suspect that for her, as for so many, baseball provided a way to feel more at home in America. Also, when my father was growing up in New Hampshire, one of his brothers was a star baseball player in high school.

The Museum of Arts and Design Is Dissolving the Idea of Africa "As We Know It"

2010-11-19T15:25:57-05:00

A night before the official opening of the current exhibition "Global Africa Project," lines were forming in front of the Museum for Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City. People were impatiently waiting to catch a glimpse of what Africa has to offer artistically today. They were overwhelmed by concepts, colors, shapes and the idea behind the exhibit: Africa becoming a vehicle for the coexistence of tradition and progressive artistic experiment - and therefore truly global. Ceramics, basketry, textiles, jewelry, furniture, architecture, fashion, photographs, paintings and sculptures sprawl over three floors, demonstrating how fruitful and inspiring the generous combination of different artistic genres can be.

Nevertheless the exhibit goes beyond simply showing art, demonstrating a clear and thoughtful "third way" in terms of how to create economic sustainability in Africa.

As curators Lowery Stokes Sims and Leslie King-Hammond mention in their introduction to the exhibition's catalogue, "Many of the creators in this exhibition are one-person production entities, while a few work for larger corporations. Many of the works in the exhibition come from community contexts where they represent the morphing of traditional skills into a global commercial entity."

One of the artists is Olu Amoda from Nigeria. His contribution is the piece "Gele" from the series "Head & Tie: Fashion Architectonic." Gele is a Yoruba word used in Nigeria for a female headwrap. A headwrap is a long piece of cloth that women tie and tuck on their head to create different looks. A gele can also transport different messages, for example "I am married," or "I am still available." Amoda is taking a satirical approach on West African habits and society by creating a gele that is made out of pieces of metal he found in his home country. "Very often," he explains, "you go to an event in Nigeria and you might have a lady in front of you with one of these huge head wraps blocking your view the entire evening. You can be sure that she will be the centre of attention, not necessarily what is happening on stage." Not only is using heavy metal for an object that is usually made from soft, organic and colorful materials an interesting alienation and a very radical Stilbruch (change in style), it also demonstrates the sometimes heavy burden of tradition. That is one of the many concepts at the Global Africa Project which is universally applicable. Beyond that, Amoda has a strong political message he expresses in his piece "Windows of Dream, Edition 2010" to be seen at the MAD as well. The Window of Dream is a screen made from recycled nails and locks and relates to the security doors he creates as a side line for the rich and famous in Lagos:

"Found objects are repurposed materials. In repurposing these nails, I am suggesting the displacement that has resulted from civil strife and border disputes in Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta region and Jos in central Nigeria. In such situations, the world watches helplessly. Worse still, very often oil and corrupt money continue to flow to the West, in exchange for weapons of destruction, only adding to the suffering. To many in the West this is the African Project 'oil for guns,'" reads the artists statement.

How to turn everyday objects into pieces of art is also a concept the Brooklyn born, Nigerian-American artist Adejoke "Wahala Temi" Tugbiyele Sedita performs well. Her piece AFRIKEA is as simple as it is beautiful and if nothing else, dysfunctional in its practicality. Wahala says, "Traditional African stools may be simple and minimalist in form, but at times they are also highly decorative and descriptive." Wahala touches on themes such as waste, overconsumption, and a one-size-fits-all design approach. The object is made of recycled IKEA stools, twine foam, and ankara fabric from Nigeria. "Ironically, IKEA has no store locations in Africa," she adds. Her motivation is clear and also embraces politics. "I try to find the nexus between my dual-cultural background - Black/American and Yoruba/Nigerian - as well as unveil where contradictions lie. In addition, I create art that responds to injustices such as crimes against the female body and the environment."

The Global Africa Project will be on view at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City until May 15th 2011. It will then travel to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD.

Gele by Olu Amoda, Photo: Skoto Gallery, New York City

AFRIKEA by Wahala Temi, Photo: Delphine Fawundu-Buford

A Note To Chancellor Angela Merkel And The Supposed Failure Of Multiculturalism In Germany

2010-10-21T18:26:37-04:00

Liebe Frau Merkel,

Normally I wouldn't abuse my platform at The Huffington Post to burden the public with my subjective views on the world. Your remarks last week made it time for an exception.

Since Saturday of last week, Frau Merkel, the remaining trust in my home country's rational regarding the "immigration issue" has vanished. I had to digest your statement that "multiculturalism in Germany has utterly failed," and then become alarmed at Horst Seehofer, chairman of your sister party, CSU, the Christian Social Union, calling for a "halt to immigration for Turks and Arabs."

Multiculturalism is a concept that as a daughter of a Greek immigrant to Germany, I have been particularly proud of. A concept, that I, being now an immigrant to the United States was always happy to quote when trying to convince an international group of friends in New York City that "Germans are worldly now. Immune to nationalism and unintelligent pride that leads us nowhere, as history has proven."

I am not so sure anymore. Now I have a lot of questions. I might not be German enough to ever return.

Doubts occur, in particular, after a study on "Right Extremism in Germany" was released on October, 13th by the Friedrich-Ebert foundation, according to which every tenth German is longing for the guidance of a "Fuehrer", and every third of my countrymen would like to send foreigners back to wherever they came from. (I wish for John Cleese to take the stage and do an adequate spoof, and, yes, go ahead, do mention the war!)

For the first time, the authors of the study the Friedrich-Ebert foundation conducts every two years inquired about the sentiments Germans are nourishing towards Muslims. 58.4% percent of interviewees agree the practice of Islam in Germany should be considerably constrained. Did I miss something when I was taught the basics of democracy and how it shall be practiced in the land of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schiller? Does the school of humanism require a German pedigree now? Could I even apply?

And what would the requisitions be, I wonder?

How, liebe Frau Merkel, am I going to explain over here that 17.2% of respondents believe that "Jews still have too much influence"?

Do you understand, liebe Frau Merkel, what signal this is transmitting to the world? In particular, since you jumped the band wagon only four days later and declared my existence, the result of a multicultural relationship in Germany, as an utter failure? Do you realize that I would like to show the world that the country I originated from, by pure accident by the way, is ready for the international diplomatic challenges of a globalized world in the 21st century? Since you just won a seat on the UN Security Council?

And now who are you going to blame for the problems in German society? The immigrants that came to work for cheap and prolonged the German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) in the late 60's or their children? Or those Germans that treated my father and his friends like they didn't belong and they never will, no matter how German they might become? Ruben Navarette pointed out at CNN this week, "Show me a group of people who are cloistered in ethnic enclaves and refusing to assimilate, and I'll show you a group of people who have often been marginalized and don't feel welcomed into the mainstream. They retreat to their own neighborhoods as a defense mechanism."

Due to a labor shortage during the Wirtschaftswunder in the 1950s and 1960s, West Germany signed bilateral recruitment agreements with Italy in 1955, Greece in 1960, Turkey in 1961, Morocco in 1963, Portugal in 1964, Tunisia in 1965, and Yugoslavia in 1968. These agreements allowed the recruitment of Gastarbeiter (guest workers) to work in the industrial sector for jobs that required few qualifications. Obligatory language courses would have made sense back in the day. But secretly the nation was hoping that the guests weren't overstaying their visit and leave after the dirty work was done.

I understand Germany is in demand of qualified laborers. 400,000 engineers are needed, according to Hans Heinrich Driftmann, President of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. With a declining birth rate in Germany in 2008, the Teutons brought up the rear in Europe with only eight babies per 1000 German citizens, half as many as in Ireland.

Where are you going to recruit these skilled employees from, if an unwelcoming atmosphere is created for everything that is not German? And to this day I am honestly pestered with the question what on earth that exactly means, being German?

Soon the productive country with attitude in the heart of Europe will be unattractive for highly skilled immigrants and internationally non-competitive.

According to ARD evening news from October 11th, more people are emigrating from Germany since 2008 than actually making the effort to get into Germany, since obtaining citizenship is a long lasting, complicated endeavor, outside of having to deal with an unwelcoming vibe.

It is extremely worrisome that a mob answers a questionnaire that documents their racist attitude. It is unacceptable for a Head of State to cave in to such sentiment.

Sincerely,
Lia Petridis Maiello