Wednesday, September 11

USA, for all its merits, is in some strange corners

Right now, it looks like only USA will be attacking the Syrian Regime now that the UK has not agreed to sign up. But USA usually ends up doing the right thing, other than few other notable exceptions.

It doesn't play cricket unlike most of the other commonwealth countries :P

it doesn't use the metric system.

Metric_system[1]

And besides Somalia, its the only other country which hasn't signed up to the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child.

 1000px-Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child.svg[1]

Paid maternal leave?

paid-maternal-leave-by-country[1]

Monday, September 9

Leni Riefenstahl

This is the story of a remarkable woman. German. Very highly qualified and amazingly talented. Perhaps one of the best directors and a wonderful photographer. But as the downside and the book, hitlers willing executioner and loads of other researchers have pointed out, the common German was as complicit in the holocaust as the nazis, the SS etc etc. As the article shows, she wriggled around trying to explain her actions. 

This is why you have to be courageously strong in standing up for what's right and saying it so. Whether its due to religion or ideology or politics son, stand up for what's right. And most importantly be very suspicious of people promising the moon. Whether its hitler or a religious guru, prophet or pandit. 

But learn to distinguish art or speech from the artist son. You can admire Wagner or Leni and their work without letting their association with nazism bother you. Will you hate the Pieta because it was made by Michelangelo as he was gay? No. 

Love

Baba

leni-riefenstahl[1] last_of_the_nuba2[1]

 

 

Leni Riefenstahl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl


Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer, actress and dancer widely known for directing the Nazi Party propaganda film Triumph of the Will. Riefenstahl’s prominence in the Third Reich, along with her personal association with Adolf Hitler, destroyed her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but released without any charges.[2]

Triumph of the Will gave Riefenstahl instant and lasting international fame, as well as infamy. She directed eight films, two of which received significant coverage outside Germany. The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most modern commentators, but many film histories cite the aesthetics as outstanding.[3][4][5][6] The Economist wrote that Triumph of the Will "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century".[7]

In the 1970s, Riefenstahl published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Sudan in several books such as The Last of the Nuba. Active until her death at age 101, she published marine life stills and released the marine-based film Impressionen unter Wasserin 2002.

After her death, the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an “acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques”.[8] Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin noted, “Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema”.[9] The BBC said her documentaries “were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time”.[10]