Josef Koudelka Invasion Prague 68 photo exhibition

August, 2018 - Nowadays it is difficult to comprehend the events in Prague that happened 50 years ago this month. Why and how on earth did tanks and soldiers end up storming around the cobbled streets of this beautiful European city? To the people of Prague back then, it was not only bewildering, but terrifying.

Invasion Prague 68 is a touring exhibition that showcases the photos of Czech photographer Josef Koudelka who was on the streets with his camera in August 1968. This reviewer saw the exhibition whilst on display at Botanique in Brussels from 14 June to 12 August 2018.

The giant black and white photos are stark and life-like. Anxious faces leap out at you as smoke from angry fires, tank guns and armed soldiers straddle the urban setting with disdain.

This is high calibre press photography - the viewer is literally thrown onto the streets of Prague, the confusion and the utter disbelief that so-called allies are invading the country.

For a brief time leading up to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops led by the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring had heralded the dawn of a more humane system: 'Socialism with a Human Face'. But Moscow was not amused - the lifting of censorship and burgeoning freedom of expression in Czechoslovakia could not be allowed to spread (uncovering uncomfortable truths about the past and openly criticising communism and its leaders).

Koudelka's photos were smuggled out of the country and published in the international press one year later with the anonymous credit of P.P. (Prague Photographer). It was only long after he had emigrated/escaped to the West during the 80s that Kodelka was able to take the credit for the photos. In the meantime his photos had won numerous prestigious photography awards and become emblematic of the tyranny of the Soviet Union.

Remarkably, the history of this invasion is neither deeply nor widely understood. It is more sexy to focus on the student protests and countercultural revolution that gripped many countries around the world in that very same year.

Koudelka's photos reveal the grotesque dichotomy of a tank accosting peaceful citizens trying to go about their everyday business. Many important questions are raised that need investigating.

WWII memoir with a twist

US troops march through a wood as they move to liberate Germany in 1945.

The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg is a fascinating account of life in Germany from about 1930 to 1945. 'Oh no, not another turgid Nazi-era memoir!' you're thinking. The 'twist' here is that the author is English.

Christabel is married to a German from Hamburg called Peter. Both husband and wife watch the rise of the Nazis with utter surprise, horror and dismay.

What shines throughout the whole story is Christabel's incredibly strong character and humour. She endures long periods of the war separated from her husband and is more or less left to raise three young sons by herself.

As allied bombing draws closer and closer to their little house in Berlin, the family is eventually forced to evacuate to a little village in the Black Forest. Here, they experience the incredible warmth and hospitality of the locals who more or less ignore all Nazi rules and decrees as far as possible. The experience of liberation by French troops turns out to be a rather terrifying experience as much raping and pillaging ensues.

What stands out in the book are the many German friends that Christabel has who totally despise the Nazis yet are unable to openly express their opposition for fear of being dragged away to Gestapo HQ.

Christabel and her husband are in fact friends with many of the July 1944 plotters who attempted and failed to blow Hitler up with a bomb hidden in a suitcase. Although, this was a popular selling point for the book when it was first published in 1968, it is most valuable for its detailed and insightful observations of everyday life under the Nazis.

The author does employ a rather old-fashioned style which is sometimes a little heavy to get through, but persevere and you will be rewarded. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history as well as fans of memoir and women's history and literature.

The Road Ahead is the follow-up novel by Christabel which recounts her family's emigration to Ireland after the war. There are interesting reflections on Irish life and society at the time, but the book lacks the bite and drama of her first one.

Film review: Cartoonists - Foot Soldiers of Democracy

This film follows 12 political caricaturists in 12 different countries. In broad brush strokes the documentary illustrates the convergence of power, greed and corruption through the sharp mocking eyes of the cartoonists.

Despite very different political contexts, the cartoonists have the ability to upset those in power, whether in France, Venezuela, Tunisia or Denmark.

There are some elegant sweeping panoramas of the different global locales and of course a lot of smart talk from the cartoonists themselves.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to fully take in the cartoons that are intermittently displayed full-screen. You simply don't have time to appreciate the jokes when having to read translations and take in the subtleties of the artwork on offer at the same time.

The cartoonists featured are brought together by the Frenchman, Plantu, who set up a group at the UN called 'cartoonists for peace.' They advocate for press freedom and defend the right to tackle sensitive subjects, even if they seriously offend people.

The film gains great relevance in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. It is well worth watching and may help you to more clearly see where your boundaries are when it comes to freedom of expression versus any form of censorship.

War in Syria - Who's Watching?

'Return to Homs' was screened in Brussels on Tuesday night as part of the One World film festival. It was a gripping and heartbreaking portrayal of the war in Syria from the rebels-eye-view.

About 200 people attended the screening at the Czech Representation to the EU. Only about half of those stayed for the panel debate afterwards.

Šimon Pánek, director of People in Need, the NGO behind the event, looked grim-faced and weary as he listened to Syrian opposition figures express their frustration with the international community for not helping them.

After 20 years in the humanitarian relief business, one sensed that he'd seen it all before. He referred to the siege of Sarajevo. Eventually something was done there.

Who knows how long it will take for 'something' to be done in Syria.

Overall, the event was an admirable and well-organized effort to raise public awareness of the war in Syria. One just wishes that it could have reached more people. There was no evidence of media coverage.

With so many conflicts in the world, where do you start?

At least another 200 people have a greater insight onto the war and will hopefully pass on their experience to family and friends.

Europeans have the luxury of choosing which conflicts to follow. How long before that choice disappears?

One World Brussels 2014 film festival runs until 02 April, tickets are free and the programme can be found here

People in Need

Review of the film

2014 War of the Worlds

The 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War deserves to be marked in many ways. Centeneries don't come around very often and when they do they're usually worth a second thought.

But what should commemorations of the first conflict that took on global proportions and slaughtered millions of men look like? Do we need big official ceremonies or small localized initiatives? Should we look at the winners or the losers?

Arguably it was the Great War which crystallized the modern concept of the nation. The idea that your only loyalty should be to your nation, and that other nations may be well and good, but they are no match for yours.

So it is no surprise then that the commemorations this year will have a distinctly national touch. Britain, France and Germany will all go their own way about doing it.

Meanwhile, the European Union has avoided organizing anything at all.

A spokesman for the Commission told news source Euractiv that this is because "... 2014 means very different things to different countries but... the President and Commissioners may attend specific events, if invited.”

It is sad that 100 years after the first major modern conflagration in Europe there can be no common drive to understand this history and learn from it.

Further reading:
Historian Richard J Evans looks at compelling parallels between 1914 and today
Journalist Simon Jenkins laments the glorification of the war in Britain

Margaret Thatcher the Great

An old woman of 87 died today following a stroke. Millions of other old women also died today. Let's put the death of Margaret Thatcher into context.

Yes, she was the Prime Minister of Britain from 1979 to 1990. Yes, she was Britain's first, and to date, only female leader. Yes, she was the 'Iron Lady' and all that.

But did she really change Britain for the better? Was she really Britain's 'greatest peacetime leader' as current Prime Minister David Cameron said today?

Whilst the global media machine sucks all intelligent analysis out of this story and honorable members of the Establishment eulogize Thatcher to death, let's take off the rose-tinted spectacles.

The roots of today's financial crisis can be traced by to her deregulation of banking in the City of London.

Her draconian crack-down on the miners' strike of 1984 undermined the political power of ordinary people.

Privatisation is no great success story. Just travel by train in the UK and find out for yourself.

Would Britain today be so precariously perched on the edge of Europe without Thatcher?

Her record on human rights is tainted: she opposed sanctions against apartheid South Africa and was an admirer of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Finally, just like her successors Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron, she was certainly not a peacetime leader as the British military has been kept busy since Ireland and the Falklands, in the Gulf, Afghanistan and most recently Libya.

It is arguable that Prime Ministers David Lloyd George (1916-22) and Clement Attlee (1945-51) with their welfare policies, notably the National Health Service created under the latter, did far more for the basic needs of the British people than Thatcher. (Whilst Churchill was clearly in a class of his own!)

So when you watch the BBC tonight and witness the blind celebration of a 'national icon', with mere lip-service to what a charmingly controversial figure she was, spare a thought for what Thatcher really was about and what she really did for the people of Britain.

World Population Day 2012

Like many of the United Nation's annual special 'days' with names such as Earth, Water, Youth and Cancer, on World Population Day what is the average Joe supposed to do?

Certain environmental doomsday extremists probably advocate mass suicides or at the very least mass castrations, in order to ease the burden of 7 billion humans on our exhausted planet.

But if you don't feel like taking part in that, what should you do? Well, the UN wants us to reflect on 'Population' and raise our awareness of it. OK, we know there are a lot of other human beings around us, all consuming to a greater or lesser extent than ourselves, and most of them we find down right annoying, but can we really limit their right to exist?

Why is it that UN initiatives, say environmental goals, always sound so good, but inevitably run into trouble when one pauses to consider their implications for universal human rights?

Well, this year's population theme, does seem to make a lot of sense: Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services.

According to the UN: "Some 222 million women who would like to avoid or delay pregnancy lack access to effective family planning. Nearly 800 women die every day in the process of giving life."

So providing the education and equipment necessary for effective family planning aims to support women's rights and reduce the burden of unwanted pregnancies.

So whilst a one-child policy may appear to have the world's best interests at heart, there are other ways to limit population growth, which support human rights at the same time.

Human Rights Watch Report 2012: Europe

Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its 2012 World Report on Friday. This international non-profit NGO has spent years monitoring the abuses and development of human rights with researchers on the ground in pretty much every country in the world.

The 690-page report which can be downloaded for free, examines everything from poor access to AIDs medication to instances of domestic violence from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Whilst there is a large focus on the events of the Arab Spring, which is likened to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the report includes a damning resume of the state of human rights in Europe.

Three main trends are identified as creating the ‘human rights crisis’ in Europe.

Firstly, counterterrorist measures in the wake of the attacks in Madrid and London have justified stripping all terrorist suspects of basic rights. An unknown number of suspects have faced torture in secret rendition centres abroad at the behest of national governments. This contravenes both international law against torture and the advice of terrorism experts who recognize the rule of law as the best way to counter terrorists.

Secondly, in the name of security, the idea that the rights of the majority can only be protected by sacrificing the rights of the minority has won widespread support in mainstream political discourse. As a result, Europe's migrants and minorities have faced increasing discrimination and xenophobic violence. This is evidenced by headscarf bans for Muslim women in several EU countries (France, Belgium, Germany and Italy) as well as the continued segregation of and discrimination against Roma, especially in eastern Europe.
 

Finally, the rise of populist extremist parties has furthered undermined the founding EU principle of universal human rights. Rather than combating the rise of the far right, mainstream parties have co-opted many of their policies. The ideal of democracy has been used to justify discriminatory and abusive policies - for example some argue that evictions of Roma from France protect the rights of the national majority and are therefore legitimate. The rights of the minority are considered irrelevant.

Ignorance and fear in Europe are again resulting in dangerous arguments that see some humans as more equal than others. As we have seen over the past century, such ideas can have catastrophic consequences.

Whilst the report identifies the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights as crucial actors that have the power to hold national governments to account, it remains to be seen how the people of Europe will respond as the economic recession deepens.

Will easy scapegoats be found and abused? Or will people rise to the challenge of building a better future, united in diversity?

Links:

World Report 2012
Chapter on the European Union
Essay by Benjamin Ward, ‘Europe’s Own Human Rights Crisis’
Video about Human Rights Watch

Book review: The Fat Years

Shanghai-born author, Chan Koonchung

The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung

First published in Chinese in 2009 by OUP, Hong Kong as Shengshi: Zhongguo 2013

English translation by Michael S. Duke, 2011

318 pages, £6.50 on amazon.co.uk

The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung has been billed by some as the Chinese Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although the novel has been banned in China, it is far less radical than George Orwell's masterpiece that was first published in 1949.

 
Koonchung's story is set in the China of 2013. Whilst the rest of the world languishes in economic depression, China has forged ahead to a 'Golden Age of Properity'. As Old Chen sips his Lychee Black Dragon Latte in the local Starbucks, it barely crosses his mind to question his own feeling of contentment or that of anybody else around him. On the surface, everybody is happy.

It takes several encounters with old friends before he seriously starts to suspect that something is wrong with reality. First, the spiritual traveller, Fang Caodi, insists that a whole month has been wiped from people's memories. Second, Chen's ex-girlfriend Little Xi is constantly shadowed by undercover agents because of her internet activism.

The story follow's Chen's somewhat rambling path to unveiling the truth. Along the way there are plenty of essayistic style dialogues with wizened Party official, He Dongsheng. Although these offer interesting perspectives on Chinese history and politics, they clog up the action.

In the end, the book is more philosophical treatise, than straight thriller. Is it better to live a lie and be happy or live in truth and be unhappy?

Crisis - What Crisis?

How long will this economic doom and gloom in Europe last? Since a bank collapsed in the US three years ago, politicians have been ranting on about a 'crisis'. Surely it is now time for governments to stop moaning on about the economy and take some positive action.

A real crisis is a short and sudden critical event with potentially devastating consequences. It is not something that drags on so long that it makes you yawn with utter boredom.

OK, so the Euro is in trouble. Greece was a little naughty and fiddled her accounts. But why did the rest of Europe make such a huge tragedy out of this? As former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt pointed out, Greece has the economic weight of a single German state. So why all the agonizing from Merkel and co. over whether to bail Greece out or not?

The answer of course lies in winning political capital. The current 'crisis' is quite a handy little tool for our governments. First, they make us worry about losing our jobs, then they say they'll save us, if we go along with funding cuts to public services. 'We're all in this together!' - 'Hang on, austerity is quite good fun actually!'

At the same time, all attention to more serious issues such as improving healthcare, schemes for affordable housing, ensuring accessible top-quality university education let alone reducing world poverty, combating climate change and building good multi-lateral relations on a global level get conveniently swept under the proverbial carpet of crisis.

Sadly, the 'occupy' protest movement merely proves that plenty of people have been fooled into believing in the 'crisis'. And how does this affect the rest of us? We can't even clear our heads with a refreshing stroll in the park anymore!

Anti-Immigrant Politics in Europe

More and more European leaders are jumping on the anti-immigrant bandwagon of the far right. First Merkel, then Cameron and Sarkozy have attacked multiculturalism as a failure. They stated that it had led to segregation and 'parallel communities'.

However, what action had their governments really taken to promote an inclusive multiculturalism? Promoting nationalistic monoculturalism and exclusion of 'others' seemed to be a simpler and more cost-effective vote-winner.

What happened to liberal democratic Europe? Every country now has its very own fascist party, sometimes several. There's the British National Party and English Defence League in good old Britain, not to mention UKIP. 

Moving over the Channel to France, you have Marine Le Pen of the French National Front who has a decent chance of becoming the next president in 2012.

The Islamophobic Geert Wilders leads the third biggest party in the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom.

Germany has its NPD, whilst even social democratic politicians are joining the patriotic act: see Thilo Sarrazin's bestseller, 'Germany Abolishes Itself'.

A few months ago the True Finns won 19.1 per cent of the vote in the general elections, bringing right wing politics to the scene. Then there's the Progress Party in Norway, Sweden Democrats who have 20 seats in the Swedish parliament and the Danish People's Party (see last post).

It is simply a bewildering array of populist trash that makes one think again before laughing about Sarah Palin and her nutty Tea Party in the US.

I've missed plenty of far right parties out, so watch this space for more naming and shaming to come.

Re-Imagining Denmark

The historian Benedict Anderson called the nation-state an 'imagined community'. In other words, the nation is an artificial man-made construction. Who belongs and who does not is simply all in the mind. Currently, a few small-minds in Denmark are trying to reconstruct what it means to be Danish.

Today, Denmark deployed 50 additional customs agents to its borders with Germany and Sweden. Not content with just restricting immigration from outside of the EU, the Danish government now feels that it is time to impose border checks on European travellers too.

Pia Kjærsgaard and her Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti, DF) must be celebrating tonight. They have scored another symbolic highly-publicized blow against a Europe without borders. At the same time, they are constricting the development of a free and open society in Denmark.

The Schengen Area of 25 nation states is based on mutual trust, cooperation and extremely tight external border control. Denmark sits geographically in the very middle of this exclusive zone and yet it is the first country to contravene the spirit and purpose of the agreement.

If Kjærsgaard and her cronies are only able to imagine a return to the parochial and backward Denmark of the past, then let us hope that their myopic view does not take hold. For breaking down borders begins in the mind.

Immigration Crisis in Europe?

On the surface the 'Arab Spring' is welcomed in Europe as the democratic awakening of a people. The authoritarian regimes in North Africa are crumbling: hurrah! But beneath the rhetoric lurk serious concerns about instability in Europe's neighbourhood.

It has brought an end to lucrative arms deals with dictators and disrupted the oil trade. But this doesn't excite the people of Europe as much as the threat from illegal immigrants. So this is what Europe's stagnant Right have seized upon.

Thousands of Tunisians have risked their lives on small boats trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa. Those that made it were given a foil cape and a bottle of mineral water to suck on by the Italian authorities. Then they were left to languish in the open for nearly two weeks. Italy wanted help from her EU friends. But these friends did not help.

So Italy started shipping the Tunisians to the mainland and granting them temporary residence permits. In principle the migrants could now enjoy the benefits of freedom of movement across the Schengen area. France assumed that these migrants would now all head for their great capital Paris and promptly started checking trains crossing their border.

Sarkozy and Berlusconi engineered a little crisis and called the EU's freedom of movement into question.

Is this really about a few thousand desperate Tunisian migrants? No, this is about undermining community spirit and clawing back national privileges. In the wake of Sarko's and Silvio's antics, the Commission has little power to reign in similar action from other member states.

Ludicrously, Denmark has reinstated checks on its border with Germany and the bridge from Sweden

So rather than fully supporting the Arab Spring as a united body, EU member states have used it as an excuse to pander to the xenophobic far right. When the going gets tough, there is a marked lack of community spirit.

Links:

Guardian video witness follows a Tunisian migrant

Aircraft carrier left us to die, say migrants

Eurozone Über Alles

In the midst of economic crisis for the Euro, Germany and France are pushing through plans for 'economic government' across the 17 European states that use the currency.

So far, the bailouts of Greece and Ireland have been heavily subsidised by the German economic powerhouse and Chancellor Angela Merkel is understandably keen to make sure the burden is spread more evenly in the future.

Are France and Germany using the crisis as a convenient justification for pushing through their 'Pact for Competitiveness'?  What happens when the financial crisis is over and things return to normal?  Perhaps the EU's big mummy and daddy are trying to look after themselves too much, with little concern for their southern and eastern family members.

The proposed harmonisation of tax, labour and pension policies seems to be a move to roll out the welfare state/high tax model of Germany and France across the eurozone. Whilst this may strengthen their position, it can only weaken that of poorer members.

Meanwhile, Britain sits by on the periphery with shockingly little to say about matters EU.  As Anatole Kalestsky writes in The Times today: eurozone countries are moving ever closer to political union leaving non-euro countries excluded from key decision-making.

Is a 'multi-speed' Europe really desirable?

See also:

MEPs vent fury at Van Rompuy over Franco-German plan
BBC Gavin Hewitt's Europe blog: France-Germany pact resisted

Obama speech in Berlin

Barack Obama called for nations to cooperate to increase freedom and peace in the world. A strong European Union would be good for the world and good for America.

We all share the burden of ‘global citizenship’ he said and the task ahead is more challenging than ever before. The advance of technology has made the world smaller, but also more dangerous.

Obama recalled the events of the Berlin Airlift 60 years ago. Only three years after the end of the Second World War, America was ready to provide a lifeline to its former enemy.

Ideas, not weapons were what, eventually defeated Communism. Obama argued that this achievement should bring hope and strength for the challenges ahead.

Obama said that a world without nuclear weapons is a major target. The superpowers of the Cold War came close too many times to destroying everything.

Using the metaphor of the Berlin Wall, he called for walls between Muslims, Christians, Jews and different races to be brought down.

He admitted war is objectionable, but said that the battle in Afghanistan must be fought on by US troops and German troops. German Chancellor Merkel will certainly have been listening closely to this part.

Obama avoided echoing JFK’s ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ and also his own ‘Yes we can!’ slogan. His delivery was sober and balanced.

Repeatedly addressing the ‘People of the world’ as well as the ‘People of Berlin’, Obama seems keen to take on the real power and responsibility of being a world leader.

“Thank you Berlin. God bless you.” He ended to spontaneous applause from the large crowd.

Awesome military might

Red Square, Russia, 09 May 2008

The Russians celebrated the 63rd anniversary of their victory over Nazi Germany with style.

What could be more rousing than a good honest military parade on Red Square? At last, Put-in had put-away enough money in his piggy bank to afford a big hootenanny for his patriotic followers. Forget spending anything on the decrepit schools and hospitals!

Did you see the pictures? By Jove, it was heartening to see the Russians flex their military muscle. No beating around the bush, like those sneaky Yanks. Check out the BBC video here.

Hold on a minute though. Is it just me, or do those jeeps look a trifle dated? Sure they've been done-up a bit, but I've seen more lethal jeeps on my way to the local supermarket in Nottingham. And those tanks? I know the T-34 was one of the deadliest fighting machines of the Second World War, but come on, they're a little bit past it now aren't they?

I feel sorry for the Russians who wanted to paint the garden fence or the garage over the weekend. There must have been a shortage of dark green paint in the D.I.Y shops!

Seriously, I'm sure the Putin had quite a hefty bill from the cleaners. All that dusting off of 17-year-old-plus hardware.

Do military museums exist in Russia? If so, I suppose all they had left to show were a couple of pick axes (donated by retired assassins) and a sharp spade or two. Everything else was in the parade!

And what about those whopping great missiles, probably longer than a London bendy bus? One gets the feeling, that Medvedev et al. are compensating for something.