tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75321362206163343512024-02-21T06:07:47.972+01:00ChirayliqTinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.comBlogger257125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-62754693123067128152018-11-25T22:32:00.001+01:002018-11-25T22:33:58.611+01:00TOP 10 Most Handsome Men In MongoliaThis blog has been dormant for a long time. Here is a little update. Of course, here at Chirayliq we wouldn't want to rank our favourites - they are all handsome in their own ways.
<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s4Vaa9oHZeA" width="480"></iframe>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-85219084329442338942013-02-04T20:56:00.002+01:002013-02-04T20:58:44.238+01:00Victorious Mongolian Ice SculptorIn <a href="http://chirayliq.blogspot.fi/2013/02/mongolian-ice-sculptors-in-finland.html" target="_blank">the previous post</a> we wrote about the Mongolian ice sculptors competing at <a href="http://www.korkeasaari.fi/artmeetsice2013/tulokset" target="_blank">Korkeasaari Zoo</a> in the Helsinki archipelago. The winner of the individual competition was announced today, and he is also Mongolian! <b>Lkhagvadorj Dorjsuren</b> won the first prize with his intricately carved work "The Lunch", depicting the competition's maritime and environmentally conscious theme through the shape of a seagull eating garbage - a prosaic subject rendered alarmingly beautiful and calling our attention to the effects of pollution. The jury especially praised the shapes of the waves at the base of the sculpture. The competition will continue next weekend, 9.-10.2.2013.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK94V1PDeoE8i5nqNs2I0MPRIiGk6TEmRTUWiFajc_mUhTxBL7LcxY4MmX7fvS4hW2njGgNAvqgX-NuO9dcDrFiQPiKe3TvMwuUUKTZUhCFziW_aV_ifgj6GzsPJF3iz3-UfNUy1L0LZIb/s1600/lkhagvadorj-dorjsuren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK94V1PDeoE8i5nqNs2I0MPRIiGk6TEmRTUWiFajc_mUhTxBL7LcxY4MmX7fvS4hW2njGgNAvqgX-NuO9dcDrFiQPiKe3TvMwuUUKTZUhCFziW_aV_ifgj6GzsPJF3iz3-UfNUy1L0LZIb/s640/lkhagvadorj-dorjsuren.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>
<b>
<br />
More photos and video clips: <a href="http://www.korkeasaari.fi/artmeetsice2013/mediagalleria" target="_blank">Korkeasaari Zoo media gallery</a></b>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-34068871945408220672013-02-03T19:29:00.001+01:002013-02-03T19:29:30.726+01:00Mongolian Ice Sculptors in Finland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzJyoUr37i7oJ-KVhBEdjhT_KumvByMOFnrhXwUSws2_mT8G4Cpe_BapUFxL3BZvcvuSpVGPTXBy2dcRe_TJQ2fHpTTlsQAom85au0sf02az8-RWMxx5X3xy4IOFHqzGQTXdtQ9f2d_CU/s1600/bazarsad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzJyoUr37i7oJ-KVhBEdjhT_KumvByMOFnrhXwUSws2_mT8G4Cpe_BapUFxL3BZvcvuSpVGPTXBy2dcRe_TJQ2fHpTTlsQAom85au0sf02az8-RWMxx5X3xy4IOFHqzGQTXdtQ9f2d_CU/s320/bazarsad.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwsytqfWDeTT9YHtr39l_i8M9R6Z8xqEZcu2ePXmZ7AIUGYJji1duqT3kM0j6tdtS99-4EhOcuHB0ofJv7t1ofZwEzbZIOdez_k2nHB8h6qfOlEEsYCmbYbmYru3egAGe9cXYZfdlYlFk/s1600/baatar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwsytqfWDeTT9YHtr39l_i8M9R6Z8xqEZcu2ePXmZ7AIUGYJji1duqT3kM0j6tdtS99-4EhOcuHB0ofJv7t1ofZwEzbZIOdez_k2nHB8h6qfOlEEsYCmbYbmYru3egAGe9cXYZfdlYlFk/s320/baatar.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
The Korkeasaari Zoo in Helsinki, located on an island within the city archipelago, currently celebrates an international ice sculpting festival, Art Meets Ice 2013. Many of the participants are from Mongolia. Above, Bazarsad Bayarsaikhan and Dorjnamil Baatar work on their individual projects in the "Life on the Baltic Sea" competition, and they will also compete against each other and the other participants in teams of two in the tandem competition "My Sea". There's a promotional video on the <a href="http://www.korkeasaari.fi/artmeetsice2013/mediagalleria" target="_blank">Korkeasaari Zoo's website</a>.<br />
<br />
It will be exciting to see what maritime subjects the Mongolian artists will tackle. As a serendipitous coincidence, a Przewalski's horse at the zoo has foaled during their visit. Przewalski's horse (or Dzungarian horse) is an endangered subspecies of wild horse from the Central Asian steppes. Once it was extinct in Mongolia, but it has been reintroduced into nature reserves in the country. It is considered the last truly wild horse, others (like the Mustangs of North America) being feral varieties of the domesticated horse.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the birth of the foal, so laden with symbolism, will inspire the artists even more in this competition? According to the Finnish national broadcasting service YLE, the artists were delighted by the news,<a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/ultra-rare_foal_born_at_helsinki_zoo/6478660" target="_blank"> and believe that it's a filly</a>, although the zoo has not published any details yet... (<a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/ultra-rare_foal_born_at_helsinki_zoo/6478660" target="_blank">video of the furry little foal here</a>) (<a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/harvinainen_villivarsa_naki_paivanvalon_korkeasaaressa/6478561" target="_blank">news in Finnish</a>)<br />
<br />
Photo source: Korkeasaari Zoo <a href="http://www.korkeasaari.fi/artmeetsice2013/mediagalleria" target="_blank">media gallery</a><br />
<br />Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-58579999207397214182013-01-09T23:06:00.003+01:002013-01-09T23:06:26.510+01:00Ville Haapasalo in Mari-ElLast Sunday, I discovered <a href="http://areena.yle.fi/tv/1761345" target="_blank">this charming TV series</a> by Ville Haapasalo, a Finnish actor who has become quite a celebrity in Russia. "Suomensukuiset 30 päivässä" (The Finnic Relatives in 30 Days) documents his travels along the Volga and around the Ural Mountains in search for the Finno-Ugric minorities in this area of the Russian Federation. The first episode started in Kazan, the Republic of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatarstan" target="_blank">Tatarstan</a>, and continued to a village in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_El" target="_blank">Mari El</a>, also a federal republic but with considerably less cultural power for the minority people whose name it bears.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lsm74k0Jpl9MDO9UlA8edB1f8KKX1jyO8AQtbCZWxvRzWn7PMLsjhZA7HxiGQwLrz7pruY5PFW9_S00Z3qJ0kHhGreRo8TAfLEPr6PtAhBP68M4IsuWB6jdvGBKS7Q_jWp693cTVyBuZ/s1600/mari.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lsm74k0Jpl9MDO9UlA8edB1f8KKX1jyO8AQtbCZWxvRzWn7PMLsjhZA7HxiGQwLrz7pruY5PFW9_S00Z3qJ0kHhGreRo8TAfLEPr6PtAhBP68M4IsuWB6jdvGBKS7Q_jWp693cTVyBuZ/s320/mari.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Visiting the holy grove - moving stories and memorable faces of the Mari people.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Mari identity builds on the Mari language and the unique, syncretist Mari religion. 43.9 % of the Mari El population identifies as Mari, but only 6 % of the population practices the traditional religion. Ville Haapasalo is invited to witness and participate in Mari rituals - the baptism of a baby and a visit to a holy grove. Trees are the spiritual bridge between deities of the Earth and the Sky for the Mari. They convey prayers and energy to the worshiper. For Finnish-speakers, it is interesting to note that the Mari word for deity is <i>jumo</i> - related to the Finnish word <i>jumala</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqqZyL_Wph1OOlW5n70LHuNpuNS-8rzIjaz3QTuyDpzywNloAad1M9_CP-uz5yhNBFB1ihcgdtqOtRpc8dBKuMUrAhaY5U4BOEPNydsdKA0hMzbRJ4zKRcuBvrnsON-49I73r2FR-kDwn/s1600/doggie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqqZyL_Wph1OOlW5n70LHuNpuNS-8rzIjaz3QTuyDpzywNloAad1M9_CP-uz5yhNBFB1ihcgdtqOtRpc8dBKuMUrAhaY5U4BOEPNydsdKA0hMzbRJ4zKRcuBvrnsON-49I73r2FR-kDwn/s320/doggie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> A fuzzy doggy joins Ville's spontaneous breakfast in a park in Yoshkar-Ola.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRiIkWEkv6B58gnooJ5wlUElndDqSPXHFWazwLLeN07CcZ82I_ZlJL9fV0xfCv7D6uy92ke3hoxID52QA01RSaiP8kL_kSRSoZZuW7eNuLijSQV1A-LxusiDgG42FsFye90q-Ld-6UIDBU/s1600/market02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRiIkWEkv6B58gnooJ5wlUElndDqSPXHFWazwLLeN07CcZ82I_ZlJL9fV0xfCv7D6uy92ke3hoxID52QA01RSaiP8kL_kSRSoZZuW7eNuLijSQV1A-LxusiDgG42FsFye90q-Ld-6UIDBU/s320/market02.jpg" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Filming was only allowed at the market in the presence of this handsome guard and a friendly guide.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdtBthQUEpSdObNoPH-zKSG7ghgM1mzaD5wMMgcQYdYn1vNG5q7Kc3oVCfef229AUlPuefdaxHIm5HSHDxchox4x8D3aBNvFWb7-YSJhTm2c6h6o9oTsUIfZVlGOPF0p8ukercxfjDO_0/s1600/market01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdtBthQUEpSdObNoPH-zKSG7ghgM1mzaD5wMMgcQYdYn1vNG5q7Kc3oVCfef229AUlPuefdaxHIm5HSHDxchox4x8D3aBNvFWb7-YSJhTm2c6h6o9oTsUIfZVlGOPF0p8ukercxfjDO_0/s320/market01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't know if this dried apricot merchant is a local or a Central Asian, but he looks cute. Ville was ecstatic about the apricots but was embarrassed when the guide insisted on paying. "We come from a capitalist country!" Nice try, Ville. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCMLCze8SCMOHHQWH9t9lfvndeixbQDQblvwc4El7xWlu4nk8bWJ_EBik7B335B8h9lfgXfrCzLRn-2eAik-8VYIaZ_9dOHPQH4bExtJTbtZ-VfGPosDCGyKK8VipzueqhiijfBWjb74c/s1600/market03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCMLCze8SCMOHHQWH9t9lfvndeixbQDQblvwc4El7xWlu4nk8bWJ_EBik7B335B8h9lfgXfrCzLRn-2eAik-8VYIaZ_9dOHPQH4bExtJTbtZ-VfGPosDCGyKK8VipzueqhiijfBWjb74c/s320/market03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young men at the market. There were a lot of striking smiles in this programme.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL4z3yrm4OhBFxZvuG8EqPe4Qivx6STbu1Lr28Dm8KOSZWHuJxkCF9Oi53KxNNsap1STzte0eOEhsBTIAFdX-unO1yAk8Rl3-6ywZFJeVgf6s5jExR1420nRtrvaGjSINRcciQCcx_otW/s1600/park01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFL4z3yrm4OhBFxZvuG8EqPe4Qivx6STbu1Lr28Dm8KOSZWHuJxkCF9Oi53KxNNsap1STzte0eOEhsBTIAFdX-unO1yAk8Rl3-6ywZFJeVgf6s5jExR1420nRtrvaGjSINRcciQCcx_otW/s320/park01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More sweet smiles. In the park, Ville discussed the future of the Mari language with the theater director Vasily. Do the young people speak Mari? With theater productions and folk dance at the university, Mari cultural workers try to revitalize interest in their cultural heritage.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kv1Le9cP96vvcawDGJrGPb2WdzoXT00jRMEPjA9M9_i3cNbf-6nmUAe1_UDNLmpi_RJkL7WgnppixqJ7KkFW2X902521noyRvbTAw1CyB5sfnqTr6QjwOtRXRmJy7jw9TKVtraOTCY8c/s1600/tanets01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kv1Le9cP96vvcawDGJrGPb2WdzoXT00jRMEPjA9M9_i3cNbf-6nmUAe1_UDNLmpi_RJkL7WgnppixqJ7KkFW2X902521noyRvbTAw1CyB5sfnqTr6QjwOtRXRmJy7jw9TKVtraOTCY8c/s320/tanets01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dance troupe at the university.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBLWa88p2dhGDVb-Q8dk0NI6_eFU7_8jOji1xVwYSi5uvFndLB6y-8Sr45_aDjIHSw5gyHvgGHicTPVdToZyMz5-APdYXqI12L2PQYnRJVS3nacyHWOpLYF2F0HrGSjpRxVM9abXsVcIZE/s1600/tanets03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBLWa88p2dhGDVb-Q8dk0NI6_eFU7_8jOji1xVwYSi5uvFndLB6y-8Sr45_aDjIHSw5gyHvgGHicTPVdToZyMz5-APdYXqI12L2PQYnRJVS3nacyHWOpLYF2F0HrGSjpRxVM9abXsVcIZE/s320/tanets03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those smiles again!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAq5Eyl-bRuFr2BCPM4Im5rKp9HK0HesmCRmTxzO0woYXl2UvH4Dsr41954WomGx_FOfS-tB_3FP8VlEfcOLBr1SRyvbSjNc03yHo7ziHZPI2NtZc5C9eZo5L8w_1p5P1xF2cSjc5tJEpR/s1600/tanets02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAq5Eyl-bRuFr2BCPM4Im5rKp9HK0HesmCRmTxzO0woYXl2UvH4Dsr41954WomGx_FOfS-tB_3FP8VlEfcOLBr1SRyvbSjNc03yHo7ziHZPI2NtZc5C9eZo5L8w_1p5P1xF2cSjc5tJEpR/s320/tanets02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mari dances were interesting - while the music often reminds of Tatar folk music, the steps look completely different in my eyes (and the costumes of course). It also seems that while dancing in pairs, the dancers do not hesitate to wrap their arm around the partner's waist ;) But of course there are many local differences and I suggest to look around on YouTube for a better idea of Mari folk dances. Like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNl027LeZk" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqcPjg_0W6k" target="_blank">here</a>... (with some modern music too)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisX-jfrb4nkmaUMarIu4tYEeNF5RaWbyKqb2I_OwCM8CFptdVzgqzs462tKXD5tV1iud9YI8zr3NmWYRpw6REVwMiG6CnLpvf8QoBShLc4Hn-xjqGBQlQs__8dev0wR0pCR2Oca4whwa69/s1600/tanets05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisX-jfrb4nkmaUMarIu4tYEeNF5RaWbyKqb2I_OwCM8CFptdVzgqzs462tKXD5tV1iud9YI8zr3NmWYRpw6REVwMiG6CnLpvf8QoBShLc4Hn-xjqGBQlQs__8dev0wR0pCR2Oca4whwa69/s320/tanets05.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The archers' dance was fascinating.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Marij, marij, ku<span class="st">š kajet? Mari, Mari, where are you going? I was honestly moved to tears many times during this programme. Ville will be continuing his travel, too - in the next episode he will visit Udmurtia and meet the famous grannies, </span><b>Buranovskiye Babushki, </b>who put up a tough but heartwarming fight against the overproduced pop starlets of the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku last year. Better have your hankies ready!<b><br /></b></div>
Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-43204552360081917552013-01-06T14:24:00.000+01:002013-01-06T14:24:47.901+01:00Ville Haapasalo in KazanVille Haapasalo is a popular actor in Russia. In Finland, he has recently become famous for his TV documentaries about the Silk Road and the states that became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union. Now Finnish television has started to show a new series about the Finno-Ugric minorities in the Russian Federation. Today, I am watching the first episode of "<span itemprop="name">Suomensukuiset 30 päivässä" (The Finnic Relatives in 30 Days - more exactly, the series focuses on the Mari, the Erzya and Moksha, the Komi, the Udmurt, the Khanty and Mansi).</span><br />
<br />
Haapasalo tries very hard to act like an ordinary ignorant guy, but the schedule of the series shows that somebody has been doing some proper research. As the starting point for his journey, he chooses Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, and devotes much time to the special cultural and religious mix of the thousand-year-old city. It is a necessary historical lesson for the Finnish audience who may not know about the role of Islam in Russian history, and the close contacts between the speakers of Finno-Ugric and Turko-Tatar languages. In fact, their fate has often been intertwined - their cultures have mixed with each other as much as with the Slavic-speakers; languages and religions have been switched back and forth. But this is a long story, and in this post, I will only show some
entertaining screencaps, which do not reflect the full scope of the
first episode.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnWwofN3CDWGzqAVJ4EBz7Tam82yjeFYtAsfIPATIKBL2XSVd3cWcQrdGakdw8l8uee_MBI11twgTifSPQBb9pzROZovI3cP9Zw4Xjxzgi2AfpSInxTQFKX2_0Akst3Hrn8P-mH_YMnf8/s1600/imam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDnWwofN3CDWGzqAVJ4EBz7Tam82yjeFYtAsfIPATIKBL2XSVd3cWcQrdGakdw8l8uee_MBI11twgTifSPQBb9pzROZovI3cP9Zw4Xjxzgi2AfpSInxTQFKX2_0Akst3Hrn8P-mH_YMnf8/s320/imam.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Ville Haapasalo meets an imam in Kazan, who reminds us of the necessity to teach children not to discriminate people according to race, nationality or religion. This interesting conversation contrasts a conflict-torn Europe with a harmonious Tatarstan - I won't go into much more detail about the complicated reality behind those images, but there are certainly lessons to be learned from the Tatar balancing act.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCuZ0xZQ4M3QqUzXmw1cEDIDrMq8RCtlMnf6m4rgTfF00T-MDjsIEQRJTB8FgrSMSF6ErAWUmWw2tvfd3mW6CdyuZ-x-sUBI4HCJySOsHeFbEMh7GgY7WkM0W1cGxoG-evQzDOJ3JCpBa/s1600/farid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCuZ0xZQ4M3QqUzXmw1cEDIDrMq8RCtlMnf6m4rgTfF00T-MDjsIEQRJTB8FgrSMSF6ErAWUmWw2tvfd3mW6CdyuZ-x-sUBI4HCJySOsHeFbEMh7GgY7WkM0W1cGxoG-evQzDOJ3JCpBa/s320/farid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Talking about the many nationalities living and working in Kazan: "Everyone can do something for their nation." Farid is Ville's guide in Kazan. He is an event organizer and a perfect diplomat, a Tatar in other words ;)</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNPgf8t51elQI8MIjmaRXo6PLcOrjwI6mCOA02bgLmrwH1xxFJegZZ_UqYtK9rterixdisPwGdpjhOPclBYxOZVA9kvV7jqxSyyvz4CpTtjEbgoZVx7XVcYqM2UDivaUl_E8iEMr23Mv7l/s1600/tatarboys02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNPgf8t51elQI8MIjmaRXo6PLcOrjwI6mCOA02bgLmrwH1xxFJegZZ_UqYtK9rterixdisPwGdpjhOPclBYxOZVA9kvV7jqxSyyvz4CpTtjEbgoZVx7XVcYqM2UDivaUl_E8iEMr23Mv7l/s320/tatarboys02.jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Boys cheering for the football club Rubin Kazan. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzYFvYCtzpNCBwy5qrmXvTXDvJ9ZlyFw_VDSaWQd4nj7FhxWkIBx9RwN0reRxFlKK0ZeC29ovSyMZPr_sb3gvs86geh6pBbqEvPpcAZ5yoYpYMiifReohtAQW1vb-eX5cogVGkMcSVARV/s1600/tatarboys01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzYFvYCtzpNCBwy5qrmXvTXDvJ9ZlyFw_VDSaWQd4nj7FhxWkIBx9RwN0reRxFlKK0ZeC29ovSyMZPr_sb3gvs86geh6pBbqEvPpcAZ5yoYpYMiifReohtAQW1vb-eX5cogVGkMcSVARV/s320/tatarboys01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjcR_XWO2m2I22cm7b8Ka1SsnsHMXuS2U8P6FjXWkgg3EitT76w0bJBu1oM25Y3igT_qSoKYIwLu1A6UhGjwOilJLHS21WxIkeagqE-hU36V_HESmO-NDEaksdv2PIE6JCjyriZXd1mmH/s1600/etnograf02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKR01vsYMCSMRVD1NdpdR9ZuXUq0_AVZd1rVG1COXzv82_nPxSi6WeXM6QDn_lHEjt6jHVouBsNgTO35geCgMr_BH765DEw3WDtUPuYdtC5NE5DjazWeYC4rlHY1YNFITsU8LK4ni0vwhG/s1600/solarium.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKR01vsYMCSMRVD1NdpdR9ZuXUq0_AVZd1rVG1COXzv82_nPxSi6WeXM6QDn_lHEjt6jHVouBsNgTO35geCgMr_BH765DEw3WDtUPuYdtC5NE5DjazWeYC4rlHY1YNFITsU8LK4ni0vwhG/s320/solarium.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Ville also visits a stable with the "fastest horses of the world". Many of them seem to be gifts to the former premier of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiyev. The horses have their own solarium... </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg83iuCkAiX7aeYQDDpvm_I1YJgmTjsDVSSe1aaznUSvBd00QQG8qal7mtjfj3-TlJd11OTzneChlnoNAU7ds8j_b0g_Hus2ssQNK_dajMSVXNt9rCIyZ_KK8H7Buwr06jfkshrJOWpfjDc/s1600/nurik.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg83iuCkAiX7aeYQDDpvm_I1YJgmTjsDVSSe1aaznUSvBd00QQG8qal7mtjfj3-TlJd11OTzneChlnoNAU7ds8j_b0g_Hus2ssQNK_dajMSVXNt9rCIyZ_KK8H7Buwr06jfkshrJOWpfjDc/s320/nurik.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
The akhal-teke Nurik is a gift from Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan. He refuses to do tricks on command...</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNPgf8t51elQI8MIjmaRXo6PLcOrjwI6mCOA02bgLmrwH1xxFJegZZ_UqYtK9rterixdisPwGdpjhOPclBYxOZVA9kvV7jqxSyyvz4CpTtjEbgoZVx7XVcYqM2UDivaUl_E8iEMr23Mv7l/s1600/tatarboys02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7suCtqjZ7ig0GdSUYA9LvBRKHOZlcDpcV35K8rAiJLDsxkDrEmtZ-JdyOw8HLTHNZnAs999ZhVv5uqguFFWPb6JB5zzBD6cgYcVp1aTJvNSswnN4diXpYvVOIIZNvvMg7bD0L9ScncM28/s1600/doggy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7suCtqjZ7ig0GdSUYA9LvBRKHOZlcDpcV35K8rAiJLDsxkDrEmtZ-JdyOw8HLTHNZnAs999ZhVv5uqguFFWPb6JB5zzBD6cgYcVp1aTJvNSswnN4diXpYvVOIIZNvvMg7bD0L9ScncM28/s320/doggy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Random doggy (for Tinet). </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjcR_XWO2m2I22cm7b8Ka1SsnsHMXuS2U8P6FjXWkgg3EitT76w0bJBu1oM25Y3igT_qSoKYIwLu1A6UhGjwOilJLHS21WxIkeagqE-hU36V_HESmO-NDEaksdv2PIE6JCjyriZXd1mmH/s1600/etnograf02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjcR_XWO2m2I22cm7b8Ka1SsnsHMXuS2U8P6FjXWkgg3EitT76w0bJBu1oM25Y3igT_qSoKYIwLu1A6UhGjwOilJLHS21WxIkeagqE-hU36V_HESmO-NDEaksdv2PIE6JCjyriZXd1mmH/s320/etnograf02.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9I_yqr5lXgXjF2MpEjbsxyLvCYk3pveKkAiBa1w2X3j39UM48LLtt-H5nk3RXSKsPd1Bs18ouKjGVZ5RpTB3sYgyu8DODKGdv1hlCK9mFl-JjBqmP8mJ2iIQ4i9YyAZlRK_X9oTIU6gLg/s1600/etnograf01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9I_yqr5lXgXjF2MpEjbsxyLvCYk3pveKkAiBa1w2X3j39UM48LLtt-H5nk3RXSKsPd1Bs18ouKjGVZ5RpTB3sYgyu8DODKGdv1hlCK9mFl-JjBqmP8mJ2iIQ4i9YyAZlRK_X9oTIU6gLg/s320/etnograf01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
One problem with this programme is that we don't learn the names of a lot of important people whom Haapasalo interviews. Here are two hobby ethnographers who collect folklore among the Mari people and publish their results on their own website, for the interest of the general public, as Ville himself notes. So why not make it available for us?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
One of the ethnographers looks a lot like Rudolf Nureyev in profile, only with dark hair. He also skipped the glass of vodka that came with the dinner. I wonder if he is Tatar? Of course, they both could be - many Tatars enjoy vodka, too...<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This was only half of the programme, but if you live in Finland you can watch the whole thing <a href="http://areena.yle.fi/tv/1754557" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-65113245915338501972011-09-11T15:23:00.003+02:002011-09-11T15:58:58.279+02:00Rest In Peace, Great SingerJust a few days ago, we blogged about <a href="http://chirayliq.blogspot.com/2011/09/greatest-khoomeizhi.html">Aldyn-ool Sevek</a>, the Tuvan master khoomeizhi ("throat singer"). Today, <a href="http://en.tuva.asia/165-sevek.html">the New Research of Tuva</a> published sad news: Aldyn-ool Sevek passed away after a long struggle against illness. <div>He was able to spend his last days in his native home at the <a href="http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%BD-%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%B3%D0%B0">Mongun-Taiga</a>, the "sacred wilderness" of Tuvinian nomads.</div><div><br /></div><div>A dated, but still <a href="http://www.therai.org.uk/film/volume-ii-contents/the-herders-of-mongun-taiga/">unique and fascinating documentary</a> about this region was produced in 1989, just at the end of the Soviet era.</div><div><br /></div><br /><iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4lMg2juyetA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-65821405462172753912011-09-08T07:59:00.003+02:002011-09-08T08:12:06.205+02:00The Greatest Khoomeizhi<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2AJj-nHO2IyU0m58h0LQbOgp6l0kS20ZQDAecEZF7MpI0GbqXGJ8jWIDFfzNyhm24ra4sUJ8W0hb8mSnlO5w_VgKQaprMJeH5hfY1FibGQhpWSr9pDLrFjoLBVmq0Ahhzi5JZDrvO7yo/s1600/Aldynool%252BSevek.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 340px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2AJj-nHO2IyU0m58h0LQbOgp6l0kS20ZQDAecEZF7MpI0GbqXGJ8jWIDFfzNyhm24ra4sUJ8W0hb8mSnlO5w_VgKQaprMJeH5hfY1FibGQhpWSr9pDLrFjoLBVmq0Ahhzi5JZDrvO7yo/s400/Aldynool%252BSevek.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649865357967014322" /></a>As regular readers of <i>The New Research of Tuva</i>, we were delighted to discover<a href="http://en.tuva.asia/163-sevek.html"> this article</a> about the master throat singer (khoomeizhi) <b>Aldyn-ool Sevek</b> by Valentina Suzukei, complete with this Chirayliq-friendly quote:<br /><blockquote><i>It was not only on a single occasion that women, both in Russia and in countries abroad told me that after listening to Aldyn-ool Sevek's recordings, they fell in love with all Tuvan men, unconditionally and sight unseen, because kargyraa is such a beautiful and vivid expression of male essence, that is very difficult to resist. "No matter how many times I heard this mighty, masculine sound, at the same time full of masculine nobility and dignity, every time it reaches into such depths of my soul, and every time it touches me to tears," - one of my colleagues-anthropologists told me, who dreams of marrying a Tuvan khoomeizhi, regardless of the fact that she is much taller than average, something that she even finds a bit embarrassing.</i></blockquote><br />Kargyraa is a deep, growling double sound created with the vocal as well as the vestibular folds (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargyraa#Kargyraa">more details</a>). Here is an example of this technique:<div><br /><iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ihLEmRG7v7I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-64808156896814928812011-08-22T18:32:00.001+02:002011-08-22T18:32:00.362+02:00Eduard Ondar<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKaN4wx0E6Fz-wlpSr_lx0WURCYHfeO67xGjcUIuL5LH5VsGowEicKXRpqdAGYSe-JplkAya2-YWiXHLFI6gokZBwAan0oEoTq4JSZQabelWjMW_Ld2BMoDTErXhabKjfY7pelFqgT0whb/s1600/1295869948_eduard.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKaN4wx0E6Fz-wlpSr_lx0WURCYHfeO67xGjcUIuL5LH5VsGowEicKXRpqdAGYSe-JplkAya2-YWiXHLFI6gokZBwAan0oEoTq4JSZQabelWjMW_Ld2BMoDTErXhabKjfY7pelFqgT0whb/s400/1295869948_eduard.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="Eduard Ondar" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFkJ7XASj6gKkoUFHJh1ypvBcfCpxqGBRRQR2lw2CvCG3alTKSr73zu8z-R-ZiJW4obsoOrylhh0CPkmG9QcLVw0Z8tfae3hY4Pc1a0HD6fLU-UOMYOrZpTJKoPuYS53oOy2wiK8HMwO9/s1600/l_1124364_22a340f2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFkJ7XASj6gKkoUFHJh1ypvBcfCpxqGBRRQR2lw2CvCG3alTKSr73zu8z-R-ZiJW4obsoOrylhh0CPkmG9QcLVw0Z8tfae3hY4Pc1a0HD6fLU-UOMYOrZpTJKoPuYS53oOy2wiK8HMwO9/s400/l_1124364_22a340f2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="Genghis Khan" /></a>
<br />Tuvan actor Eduard Ondar recently <a href="http://etatar.ru/20/40734">visited Kazan</a> during the all-Turkic Nauruz festival. Ondar starred in Yakut director Andrei Borisov's epic movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124364/">By the Will of Chingis Khan</a> (2009), and his next great project is a Kazakh production where he plays <a href="http://en.tuva.asia/72-eduard-ondar.html">a Dzungarian warlord</a>. In an interview for <span style="font-style:italic;">Tuvinskaya Pravda</span>, Ondar tells about the <a href="http://en.tuva.asia/20-genghis.html">unexpected troubles</a> that the role of the greatest warlord in Asian history brought him:
<br />
<br />"Before, in my time off, just like most of my colleagues, I used to moonlight as a cab driver with my ancient Honda, to make a few extra kopeks. <span style="font-style:italic;">Genghis Khaan</span> deprived me of this possibility. One day some elderly passenger that I was driving somewhere even complained to my bosses – how is this possible, the Khan himself, and he has sunk to driving a riksha? That is unsuitable."
<br />
<br />See also: <a href="http://en.tengrinews.kz/video/329/">Preview of the new Kazakh movie.</a>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-22194339653820698592011-08-21T18:27:00.001+02:002011-08-21T18:31:09.320+02:00Kabul Rocks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUQdHMMTZxGDIgsuI8Kere8UatUTdcK8O2I_XbSxlrSeTbJPTOcScxBS6Wd_hhJ_6lymO-yUadXlX8BMfX88FiOdiMPL6beRqmLUibP4HJlQfz-OLlEIg-LIPWZLztlp6tBM3Xgp7ocO6/s1600/the-white-page.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyUQdHMMTZxGDIgsuI8Kere8UatUTdcK8O2I_XbSxlrSeTbJPTOcScxBS6Wd_hhJ_6lymO-yUadXlX8BMfX88FiOdiMPL6beRqmLUibP4HJlQfz-OLlEIg-LIPWZLztlp6tBM3Xgp7ocO6/s400/the-white-page.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="The White Page" /></a>
<br />Afghan rock band The White Page
<br />Al Jazeera: <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/08/201181865222438469.html">Kabul Rock City - Afghan youth take on corruption and war with heavy metal</a>.Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-47280664167569319672011-07-29T00:13:00.005+02:002011-07-29T00:39:42.119+02:00Charles Bronson TV ad<iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CV3gA7hNItY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Our perennial favourite Charles Bronson (who probably deserves his own tag soon, exhibit <a href="http://chirayliq.blogspot.com/2009/04/charles-bronson-vs-toshiro-mifune.html">#1</a> and <a href="http://chirayliq.blogspot.com/2007/06/what-do-all-these-guys-have-in-common.html">#2</a>) on Japanese TV, advertising nothing less than MAN DOM. The original poster claims that this was made around 1970, and we are inclined to believe them.</div><br /><br />Oh yeah... Happy birthday, Mum!Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-65310899511027106892011-07-12T17:13:00.003+02:002011-07-12T17:24:17.491+02:00Nurmuhamed<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ru0eb6OI8ECiJG946ktYxRtxEjme-kJk7DqJ-Xsf-LNGcgYs-kASWiqgMvAPzDfgSSOBR46Ao_2dA7x4IZkFuMOmAHsmnJx-KqgH98uDkE2wdR-QNR-gZhgDiVtxLXu4nuXTWj6WasOx/s1600/i-sadykov_n-nussipkozhanov.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ru0eb6OI8ECiJG946ktYxRtxEjme-kJk7DqJ-Xsf-LNGcgYs-kASWiqgMvAPzDfgSSOBR46Ao_2dA7x4IZkFuMOmAHsmnJx-KqgH98uDkE2wdR-QNR-gZhgDiVtxLXu4nuXTWj6WasOx/s400/i-sadykov_n-nussipkozhanov.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5628484459985481650" /></a><br /><div>If you have nothing better to do, you surf around vkontakte.ru and look for Chirayliq material... Take a look at this inspiring album called <a href="http://vkontakte.ru/album-18813272_130992843">"Isolation"</a>, so refreshing in the summer heat, isn't it? The lovely <a href="http://vkontakte.ru/sunnymarka">portfolio</a> was created by Almaty photographer <a href="http://sunny-marka.kz/">Ilyas Sadykov</a> and also includes some nice <a href="http://vkontakte.ru/album-18813272_134307370">backstage</a> photos of the artist himself at work.</div><div><br /></div><div>The model in "Isolation" is singer Nurmuhame<span class="Apple-style-span" >d Nussipkozhanov.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Oh, and don't forget: Smoking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belomorkanal">papirosi</a> is bad for your health...</span></div>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-60518708721197039802011-07-11T21:14:00.004+02:002011-07-11T21:18:15.517+02:00Madness - Neg odor<iframe width="640" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bP864JI0zFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Madness is a Mongolian rock band. This video was custom-made for Chirayliq ;-)</div>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-52731959489397815602011-07-11T14:17:00.005+02:002011-07-11T15:00:16.356+02:00National Day of MongoliaToday, Mongolia celebrates its 90th national day.<br /><br />On July 11, 1921, Mongolia was declared independent after the victories of a Mongol revolutionary army led by Damdin Sükhbaatar and supported by the Soviet Red Army. They defeated a White army led by Baron Ungern-Sternberg (with his own motives in conflict with other White Russian leaders - a fantastic story worth it's own post one day!) and the Chinese occupants of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Mongolia,_1911-1919">Outer Mongolia</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5tm7i0F7JofNNxCMeXq8riqjks_r88BsUAfNo9IH2yVSz8a0Pd2cNWeWMYFZ5NDbRlp3htheQV727G_7gvi07pmGDfV6KRGeF4p2oAqnmGLBW1EpVZY0gy-YbilqCtOYZ54VyM58yJlK4/s1600/Sukhbaatar_and_Choibalsan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 263px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5tm7i0F7JofNNxCMeXq8riqjks_r88BsUAfNo9IH2yVSz8a0Pd2cNWeWMYFZ5NDbRlp3htheQV727G_7gvi07pmGDfV6KRGeF4p2oAqnmGLBW1EpVZY0gy-YbilqCtOYZ54VyM58yJlK4/s400/Sukhbaatar_and_Choibalsan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="sukhbaatar" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span">Sükhbaatar and Choibalsan, revolutionary leaders. Sükhbaatar was a popular military leader. He died less than a year after the declaration of independence, an event surrounded by rumours. Choibalsan went on to lead Stalin-style purges, first among the Mongol monarchists and Buddhist leaders, later within the Communist party itself.</span><br /><br />But that was not the first or only occasion in the 20th century that Mongolia's independence was declared. In December 29, 1911, the Khalkhas of Outer Mongolia declared their independence from the Qing Dynasty. They installed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebtsundamba_Khutuktu">a lama of a high lineage</a> as the Bögd Khaan, and thus the first independent Mongolian state of the 20th century became a theocracy. This state was later occupied by the newly established Republic of China. The second declaration of independence in 1921 led to the establishment of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_People%27s_Republic">Mongolian People's Republic</a> under strong Soviet influence in 1924.<br /><br />Squeezed in between two great powers, Mongolia has had a difficult task of balancing between outer pressure and inner power struggles. In 1990, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Democratic_Revolution_in_Mongolia">a peaceful revolution</a> led by young people and students eventually caused the single-party system to crumble. (Interestingly, even Wikipedia mentions the "thousand-year parliamentary tradition" of Mongolia!)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU8VDOHRFMPV57DHtPoeJ_w2JOQq_PzinRFnCk6H2m3egvA2909d2YoJG7uFdrczWjL7hBdK_t4dR90KiW6hDIErPkmcQCZvZn7pUtdPoMGYeYzVhncE2fs1MHST9zdLN6RQevM2x_4Eba/s1600/SZorig_Mongolian_protests_1990.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU8VDOHRFMPV57DHtPoeJ_w2JOQq_PzinRFnCk6H2m3egvA2909d2YoJG7uFdrczWjL7hBdK_t4dR90KiW6hDIErPkmcQCZvZn7pUtdPoMGYeYzVhncE2fs1MHST9zdLN6RQevM2x_4Eba/s400/SZorig_Mongolian_protests_1990.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="zorig" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span">Protestors in Sükhbaatar square, among them <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanjaas%C3%BCrengiin_Zorig">Sanjaasürengiin Zorig</a>, one of the student leaders, who became a notable progressive politician and was mysteriously murdered in 1998.</span><br /><br />So much for the strange and violent 20th century! Now let's relax with Börte, a wonderful band that plays traditional instruments and invents new melodies on a grand scale, take us through some ancient elements of Mongolian history in this beautiful composition "Gobi".<br /><br /><iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PMFkYdWZ7Ic" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-68542577332102913662011-05-09T21:39:00.004+02:002011-05-09T21:45:52.302+02:00День Победы<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdM7CfggxWjfnRdFmoPKKA3JRuOr3Z8D_NFVETv2tB3U_0Z5E0sa7Pdi1ALNZG9JxHqDQJebwZan5hezx1DMoBklaClucWAnqCC7h5HfRu2GEqS0gnaiIYOwAARfqYvh9FpsZ7F10Q8vj/s1600/03558R-5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdM7CfggxWjfnRdFmoPKKA3JRuOr3Z8D_NFVETv2tB3U_0Z5E0sa7Pdi1ALNZG9JxHqDQJebwZan5hezx1DMoBklaClucWAnqCC7h5HfRu2GEqS0gnaiIYOwAARfqYvh9FpsZ7F10Q8vj/s400/03558R-5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604803405394336162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Soviet sailor. From the album <a href="http://www.russianartandbooks.com/cgi-bin/russianart/03558R.html">Soviet Photography</a>, published for the 1939 World Fair in New York.Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-48065921274456523432011-03-13T10:31:00.008+01:002011-03-13T11:22:52.416+01:00Rescue Dogs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOn9zkTkczBlgZuTrwJwR1sb6I8G-KGiIVHbAT8PuFM-LgNeJsGfdXqOu5MORpFvwtzrGpSe6oArEwFyQ90eX7nKYRgXTajkyfKxnJB2Dg1JvfglWCYURAazbZmW4_ZjXTIHHLZ29iTNhS/s1600/yomiuri-shimbun-kazuki-wakasugi.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 276px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOn9zkTkczBlgZuTrwJwR1sb6I8G-KGiIVHbAT8PuFM-LgNeJsGfdXqOu5MORpFvwtzrGpSe6oArEwFyQ90eX7nKYRgXTajkyfKxnJB2Dg1JvfglWCYURAazbZmW4_ZjXTIHHLZ29iTNhS/s400/yomiuri-shimbun-kazuki-wakasugi.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583498002247228642" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">After the previous post on the disastrous <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_21.html">9.0 earthquake in Japan</a> this weekend, I found lots of photos of search and rescue teams with dogs. Again, the core Central Asian states are seriously underrepresented - please point me in the right direction if you are in the know. Above, a Japanese dog team is looking for survivors among the destruction at the tsunami-stricken northeast coast. You can see how big ships have been thrown ashore by the mighty waves. Photo by Kazuki Wakasugi. Source: Yomiuri Shimbun</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5t_0PxnyD3-02YYaO2MvLrObIZta_1YOXxD5woixIiultel1Zkdb4Qt0QrqEj95zuQ-E11U9PGSXmNdv_Zmd1D11Nz-Kbl6epNCofQ9_H9s4LKGXkSibMW_bSDvWjrCyd3aszm0QiKsm6/s1600/korea-reuters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5t_0PxnyD3-02YYaO2MvLrObIZta_1YOXxD5woixIiultel1Zkdb4Qt0QrqEj95zuQ-E11U9PGSXmNdv_Zmd1D11Nz-Kbl6epNCofQ9_H9s4LKGXkSibMW_bSDvWjrCyd3aszm0QiKsm6/s400/korea-reuters.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497995445463282" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">A South Korean rescue dog team arrives in Japan, as seen in the previous post. Source: Reuters</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb3P3QkxNPzSZPoSCQGQ8KIZx7hGOPL0PTCaYgp84bE7i0MfPeB-zv0lQocdozfdhZPyRcuouSIVHcvstALoop7xE_J3wp_kexIF0NgIv6F8FE1oS_JCRuN1E-3xeRD-vZdnEfktg2zaZ/s1600/kesennuma.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcb3P3QkxNPzSZPoSCQGQ8KIZx7hGOPL0PTCaYgp84bE7i0MfPeB-zv0lQocdozfdhZPyRcuouSIVHcvstALoop7xE_J3wp_kexIF0NgIv6F8FE1oS_JCRuN1E-3xeRD-vZdnEfktg2zaZ/s400/kesennuma.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497998267362306" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">An inhabitant of the town Kesennuma, which suffered terribly under the tsunami, carries his little sheltie. Source: Der Spiegel</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvHPCXj62SMtlyUduLdGBZDGL2GBMTtr_AIU8E5xEERoM9FuKVzBwYy5ctgJiJC5WkcnZdp7jfHikwN7v9sChUQi_v1vL3t6HlM3zKbrRXIbHxB0N8sROk4bXd0U_8gHuWW2cN7Dk_5NS/s1600/sumatra2009ppy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvHPCXj62SMtlyUduLdGBZDGL2GBMTtr_AIU8E5xEERoM9FuKVzBwYy5ctgJiJC5WkcnZdp7jfHikwN7v9sChUQi_v1vL3t6HlM3zKbrRXIbHxB0N8sROk4bXd0U_8gHuWW2cN7Dk_5NS/s400/sumatra2009ppy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497992072809282" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Indonesia is another island nation frequently experiencing earthquakes. This photo is from Sumatra 2009. A man is taking several dogs out for a walk in the partly-destroyed city.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjrxebWiI4A8hHcHCYnXwiZs9TOw3yvAZDqCPFkkJzpB7Ra-XN_yEfOJE04fjlvixsKxJ9rzqZC4wG0UMW3tRD6Le7YPhSaQp21L8AU6pBXIbsM0Dq4-ZlIETVhxTMHUPK0FRq0yhoo0F/s1600/indoquake2dog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjrxebWiI4A8hHcHCYnXwiZs9TOw3yvAZDqCPFkkJzpB7Ra-XN_yEfOJE04fjlvixsKxJ9rzqZC4wG0UMW3tRD6Le7YPhSaQp21L8AU6pBXIbsM0Dq4-ZlIETVhxTMHUPK0FRq0yhoo0F/s400/indoquake2dog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497987735725746" /></a><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">Search and rescue dogs arrived in Sumatra from all over the world.</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOEyPyzw9p2-9_ygLKarJNmqlLmBu7rNWlWboPSiBGWp-HwDvwP4_7hgkB65FkM7lZGZb3qkxNxRFsX0tykzSCwqEWDYqVFiJ64TMvxqu8NF5Zr_Xz39DSTKt6fNYrKuO_6UJ9k7HiQyU/s1600/taiwan-to-nz-rescue-dog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 315px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOEyPyzw9p2-9_ygLKarJNmqlLmBu7rNWlWboPSiBGWp-HwDvwP4_7hgkB65FkM7lZGZb3qkxNxRFsX0tykzSCwqEWDYqVFiJ64TMvxqu8NF5Zr_Xz39DSTKt6fNYrKuO_6UJ9k7HiQyU/s400/taiwan-to-nz-rescue-dog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497390982229842" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Taiwanese rescue workers with a search and rescue dog assisted with the recovery of survivors in Christchurch, New Zealand, earlier this year.</div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOEyPyzw9p2-9_ygLKarJNmqlLmBu7rNWlWboPSiBGWp-HwDvwP4_7hgkB65FkM7lZGZb3qkxNxRFsX0tykzSCwqEWDYqVFiJ64TMvxqu8NF5Zr_Xz39DSTKt6fNYrKuO_6UJ9k7HiQyU/s1600/taiwan-to-nz-rescue-dog.jpg"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirImDNS2aGlyt8DX-WzEVuPyMeJtbit0XKlyGCLFh3jILTQI3dxaayYnhwCtoeTFTip7qwoWQbMIv1_iKist9nmkmHmIOH9-swfeRA8AzaWOvEi8G-Hl6BK-CMBB1vHTx6Hh28I0ry4DO8/s1600/Nepalese_dog-team.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirImDNS2aGlyt8DX-WzEVuPyMeJtbit0XKlyGCLFh3jILTQI3dxaayYnhwCtoeTFTip7qwoWQbMIv1_iKist9nmkmHmIOH9-swfeRA8AzaWOvEi8G-Hl6BK-CMBB1vHTx6Hh28I0ry4DO8/s400/Nepalese_dog-team.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497385486985778" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; "><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/Himalaya-Rescue-Dog-Squad-Nepal-Book-Project-Kickstarter">Himalaya Rescue Dog Squad Nepa</a>l is the first-ever of its kind in the country. The squad's tasks include rescue operations at high altitudes and in deep jungles, after avalanches, floods, and serious traffic accidents. Since the project is so new and the working conditions are very difficult, there's <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deb/the-himalaya-rescue-dog-squad-nepal-book-project">a fundraising page</a> with more information. The people involved in the project also run a caste-free school.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPbdX4QAC5bkkEFuBFKYsPtWtA25OZ897GAsVquHF3pq88pX05mDIgjQS8rLsFhkqHvhLhnivLMfhiyUZyUavcdNFQFKXcOYzQDeU4xPmzCQyjQfWh0lcKmtRi1j-gluBjPr2fjd1hr36/s1600/ilya-zaslavski-perets-haiti2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPbdX4QAC5bkkEFuBFKYsPtWtA25OZ897GAsVquHF3pq88pX05mDIgjQS8rLsFhkqHvhLhnivLMfhiyUZyUavcdNFQFKXcOYzQDeU4xPmzCQyjQfWh0lcKmtRi1j-gluBjPr2fjd1hr36/s400/ilya-zaslavski-perets-haiti2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497387526066018" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Ilya Zaslavski and search and rescue dog Perets arrived in Haiti 2010 from Russia. The Haiti earthquake struck a densely populated region with weak infrastructure, and recovery has been very difficult. The earthquake could inflict lasting damage on an already disadvantaged society, so we shouldn't forget about Haiti. <a href="http://www.redcross.org/Haiti/">The Red Cross</a> has more information.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Speaking of Russia, I found a cute thread about <a href="http://forum.k9-sar.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1485">rescue dog training in Russia</a> by volunteers. If your dog likes to search for things and needs an interesting hobby, this could be a nice idea. Many of the more independent-minded breeds that tend to do naughty things when bored (such as shibas and terriers in the thread) are well suited for this kind of complex task.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYiQ_nZkNBSK04qwIoEGzEPJXkOaxiSFJ_9Tvt_O1FCq7qD7cmwkoqoAQAOm2JtmNTk2k8kbkJi-i-mozp2mdZaGrf58B83EnweCNKiCDmyIMY15JO2Fd8M6644zw848mLVtq1qj6RJDLS/s1600/chengdu-dog-shelter.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYiQ_nZkNBSK04qwIoEGzEPJXkOaxiSFJ_9Tvt_O1FCq7qD7cmwkoqoAQAOm2JtmNTk2k8kbkJi-i-mozp2mdZaGrf58B83EnweCNKiCDmyIMY15JO2Fd8M6644zw848mLVtq1qj6RJDLS/s400/chengdu-dog-shelter.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497381219368658" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Dogs that were injured in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake are being treated at a private shelter in Chengdu.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1BvpAKJvp8t_QaPU_YaKCK2mSz2GYLl5-G57Hd4qJD0I1adNWyJquxgUDXxyKMENw8ZRkSWCTVeEXglYCcBwSc3P_SedfjxhEBTfNKgdQgzAPnxqvjjdDf2YcZiHr_hCZsMQyXZwI9EE/s1600/china-dog-train.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1BvpAKJvp8t_QaPU_YaKCK2mSz2GYLl5-G57Hd4qJD0I1adNWyJquxgUDXxyKMENw8ZRkSWCTVeEXglYCcBwSc3P_SedfjxhEBTfNKgdQgzAPnxqvjjdDf2YcZiHr_hCZsMQyXZwI9EE/s400/china-dog-train.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583497377332458754" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Rescue dog training in China: The People's Liberation Army tends towards rather showy exercises...</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9s-Xn0ORBZnncPnOitEVExtdQu9GWf-8MzS3EHjoOAtDDdGc_LaMvrZuHmrtsTG2ts1dyeG9V3-s5HpRX23pQROy_wlAkO4k2bl0sq_se_kD6smm7ZZ0cCF8YuJ1SynXH049pGtjHvzlK/s1600/rescue-dog-china.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9s-Xn0ORBZnncPnOitEVExtdQu9GWf-8MzS3EHjoOAtDDdGc_LaMvrZuHmrtsTG2ts1dyeG9V3-s5HpRX23pQROy_wlAkO4k2bl0sq_se_kD6smm7ZZ0cCF8YuJ1SynXH049pGtjHvzlK/s400/rescue-dog-china.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583498275199716386" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Jumping through fiery hoops... and the handler's arms.</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAEm8ROo9rxM5arm96rNTrRYcesh8TFkxd9tl3IUYGlITF0M-sQ34sreasK7bkSncF4k4HYo-zMPsVq_FDAJqfxFcAqqDCvHvzAUFqPg7fWMLHNYCeNgZem7qjhVYk1RJjKLALiWr34IT/s1600/PLA-RescueDog.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBAEm8ROo9rxM5arm96rNTrRYcesh8TFkxd9tl3IUYGlITF0M-sQ34sreasK7bkSncF4k4HYo-zMPsVq_FDAJqfxFcAqqDCvHvzAUFqPg7fWMLHNYCeNgZem7qjhVYk1RJjKLALiWr34IT/s400/PLA-RescueDog.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583498274280561202" /></a></div>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-12338805461194030092011-03-12T13:48:00.007+01:002011-03-12T15:09:30.332+01:00Earthquakes in Asia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GvQHhAWGP4DC2AUuxauP4rm1dNX_gPQJNoxYvTIzVA4qC9t94bqC5re-OFVZaTTTBSXIcsixmj4QqqNMndv_EMShA1DW3k2SDwV2l2gUDUp1mcMNcf0mq7FVVBmv6iP3mQUh4XyvgyHy/s1600/erdbebenjapan144_dapd.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1GvQHhAWGP4DC2AUuxauP4rm1dNX_gPQJNoxYvTIzVA4qC9t94bqC5re-OFVZaTTTBSXIcsixmj4QqqNMndv_EMShA1DW3k2SDwV2l2gUDUp1mcMNcf0mq7FVVBmv6iP3mQUh4XyvgyHy/s400/erdbebenjapan144_dapd.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="dapd" /></a><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;">Japanese troops save an elderly man whose hometown has been destroyed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake_and_tsunami">the Sendai earthquake</a> and tsunami, magnitude 8.9, on 11. March 2011.</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We have been following the news from Japan (live stream here: <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/">http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/</a>), and our thoughts go out to all the brave people, civilians and officials, who are doing their best to save lives in the greatest earthquake in recent Japanese history. Earthquakes happen <a href="http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6904290.html">all over the world</a>, and we include here some photos of rescue operations during the last 5 years in Asia.</div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfKmndsqseCCPT85GVgd67-r-N4yXaw6GggceaKLv4H3qn3RtpSu69YNBPxvsCFaIL5DtUUfSE2C1zF1MQZOywduQVm37gdDlAG0rwUyV6no7D2d1Rk-MqGp_iS7YFfQKfR2Tc5bWXjEQ/s1600/erdbebenjapan136_afp.jpg"></a><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfKmndsqseCCPT85GVgd67-r-N4yXaw6GggceaKLv4H3qn3RtpSu69YNBPxvsCFaIL5DtUUfSE2C1zF1MQZOywduQVm37gdDlAG0rwUyV6no7D2d1Rk-MqGp_iS7YFfQKfR2Tc5bWXjEQ/s1600/erdbebenjapan136_afp.jpg"><img style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfKmndsqseCCPT85GVgd67-r-N4yXaw6GggceaKLv4H3qn3RtpSu69YNBPxvsCFaIL5DtUUfSE2C1zF1MQZOywduQVm37gdDlAG0rwUyV6no7D2d1Rk-MqGp_iS7YFfQKfR2Tc5bWXjEQ/s400/erdbebenjapan136_afp.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="afp" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">South Korean rescue workers and dogs arrive in Japan. Source: AFP</div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcxz7HV13JYcV1IR1uvxguACFhIRmYG5bRiMG2xPvpV-ipO1FgcxtmwcyUqPb_S0KjbRaOhk3SyJMvsRthyphenhyphen1mBSRHyODRZ-IllVTPNe3qto23ilroE2-PZ_spv893hTyYtRC139McfBRDC/s1600/erdbebenjapan128_reuters.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcxz7HV13JYcV1IR1uvxguACFhIRmYG5bRiMG2xPvpV-ipO1FgcxtmwcyUqPb_S0KjbRaOhk3SyJMvsRthyphenhyphen1mBSRHyODRZ-IllVTPNe3qto23ilroE2-PZ_spv893hTyYtRC139McfBRDC/s400/erdbebenjapan128_reuters.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="reuters" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Source: Reuters. More images at Tagesschau.de (<a href="http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/erdbebenjapan122.html">http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/erdbebenjapan122.html</a>)</div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUf6SOlIOJUpNjupAOK3N19t9I6OmUy8rzqEVdK5JQN-m0V1vDcPynqdPGitcqR7uF2uDMRXc-JKQLX-uXDGiviPVhUCrSDLf_ukj_3Xp5zXekGNsh5oG_EgBTch3uoG53b2zQK-i-oQqO/s1600/eng_pandas_BM_Vermi_698012a.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUf6SOlIOJUpNjupAOK3N19t9I6OmUy8rzqEVdK5JQN-m0V1vDcPynqdPGitcqR7uF2uDMRXc-JKQLX-uXDGiviPVhUCrSDLf_ukj_3Xp5zXekGNsh5oG_EgBTch3uoG53b2zQK-i-oQqO/s400/eng_pandas_BM_Vermi_698012a.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="pandas" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUf6SOlIOJUpNjupAOK3N19t9I6OmUy8rzqEVdK5JQN-m0V1vDcPynqdPGitcqR7uF2uDMRXc-JKQLX-uXDGiviPVhUCrSDLf_ukj_3Xp5zXekGNsh5oG_EgBTch3uoG53b2zQK-i-oQqO/s1600/eng_pandas_BM_Vermi_698012a.jpg"></a>In 2008, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake">a devastating earthquake struck Sichuan Province</a> in China. Here, the famous pandas of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding are being <a href="http://knut-home-2.blog.de/2009/08/01/rettung-pandabaeren-china-erdbeben-2008-rescue-of-panda-bears-china-after-earthquake-6630627/">rescued</a>.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzx6XjxfjR9fusw8RblgYFQPV1fbyfrI1zpJjNy_5YCNsoEueJvzPEGhMuDfHdE6lvCLu3Rxa2uy6f7gmRDECBlgbGGvQ8z5PjDg9wNBCDbv3rO17FULxBOl9mA4bxVu7QrBLuQWsqtRJ/s1600/beichuan08worldpressphotoawards.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzx6XjxfjR9fusw8RblgYFQPV1fbyfrI1zpJjNy_5YCNsoEueJvzPEGhMuDfHdE6lvCLu3Rxa2uy6f7gmRDECBlgbGGvQ8z5PjDg9wNBCDbv3rO17FULxBOl9mA4bxVu7QrBLuQWsqtRJ/s400/beichuan08worldpressphotoawards.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="beichuan" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The toll on human life was much greater. At least 68,000 people were killed in the 8.0 Ms quake centered on Wenchuan County on 12 May 2008.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZWAs0xBzXTswK-PbqNtwSl9_itld6soE8_LfbVFY9FNmtBWO4F4RFLSpCVd5zV1gLfy8Kt4U3Wmdr45ZuYq3av1azl6nv_Wc5Otka_vFpK8Ru3wyRa1CJn43NEVXw_xYOEb7QPV_HZLQ/s1600/beichuan08reuters-guangquan.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZWAs0xBzXTswK-PbqNtwSl9_itld6soE8_LfbVFY9FNmtBWO4F4RFLSpCVd5zV1gLfy8Kt4U3Wmdr45ZuYq3av1azl6nv_Wc5Otka_vFpK8Ru3wyRa1CJn43NEVXw_xYOEb7QPV_HZLQ/s400/beichuan08reuters-guangquan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="reuters" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZWAs0xBzXTswK-PbqNtwSl9_itld6soE8_LfbVFY9FNmtBWO4F4RFLSpCVd5zV1gLfy8Kt4U3Wmdr45ZuYq3av1azl6nv_Wc5Otka_vFpK8Ru3wyRa1CJn43NEVXw_xYOEb7QPV_HZLQ/s1600/beichuan08reuters-guangquan.jpg"></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><u>Rescue workers help an elderly man.<br /></u></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6e3sh0Ki7vGy9rQdkzz2nrrh4cS6LYTiFm6JTC-8BaomY5cwcVGb6AXhu8ibudWaNsJxkn2GiapnEDtpG77vRHfhluPdqgy2dTnb7OM-v4cG7PszZFt3DyfdDoOcBA7h78vj4YaeyNZRt/s1600/Osh_earthquake%25283%2529.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 254px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6e3sh0Ki7vGy9rQdkzz2nrrh4cS6LYTiFm6JTC-8BaomY5cwcVGb6AXhu8ibudWaNsJxkn2GiapnEDtpG77vRHfhluPdqgy2dTnb7OM-v4cG7PszZFt3DyfdDoOcBA7h78vj4YaeyNZRt/s400/Osh_earthquake%25283%2529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="osh" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In contrast to the numerous photos from Japan and China, it is slightly more challenging to find material from the Central Asian countries that have also been suffering from earthquakes during the last decade. These countries have also received less news coverage, globally. Above, rescue workers from the <a href="http://www.rcp.org.tr/en/index.php?sf=hbr&id=27">Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent Society</a> pose for a group photo in the Alai region of Osh City in<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'microsoft Sans Serif'; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(84, 84, 84); -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "> </span>2008. The town Nura and the village Kura were <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27043637/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/">completely destroyed</a> in the magnitude 6.6 earthquake that was felt in in Tajikistan and Xinjang Uighur as well. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpke7_TfGL5RqgbtQYDqolIFgIyFfa_NU28414ubt4nSwPl2YpM2Rcmai_2mnytPh3KvwvXGTg6auwR4iG6N17er_LL64YePMbP-oT02XBWz7jT_MT9AfaxJGg-TF9W4uF2z080VFnZcQ/s1600/china_080627E.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHpke7_TfGL5RqgbtQYDqolIFgIyFfa_NU28414ubt4nSwPl2YpM2Rcmai_2mnytPh3KvwvXGTg6auwR4iG6N17er_LL64YePMbP-oT02XBWz7jT_MT9AfaxJGg-TF9W4uF2z080VFnZcQ/s400/china_080627E.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="unicef" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Unicef specialist Yang Zhenbo among schoolkids in Sichuan after the earthquake 2008. (Source: <a href="http://fieldnotes.unicefusa.org/2008/07/china_more_aid_needed_for_long_1.html">Unicef</a>)</div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">And life goes on. See <a href="http://www.cjphotography.btinternet.co.uk/pkwidow.shtml">Claudia Janke's impressive photo series</a> after the earthquake in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Kashmir_earthquake">Pakistan 2005</a>. People rebuild their homes and even have time for a quick smile in spite of their difficult circumstances. But healing takes time and comes with a heavy cost - that's why international mutual help and aid always will be necessary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">EDIT: In 2010, the Yushu earthquake hit the Tibetan plateau with a magnitude of 7.1 Ms. Don't miss <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24669434@N02/4526255341">these images of Tibetan monks as rescue workers</a>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(The comparison is pretty pathetic, but Ainur has only experienced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sk%C3%A5ne_County_earthquake">one "real" earthquake</a> in her life and can only marvel at the survival stories above. Please correct any mistakes you can spot in this post, as it was written in a great hurry and emotional turmoil.)</span></div>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-88669286076572637232011-02-14T20:30:00.003+01:002011-02-14T20:45:12.028+01:00Ali's Dream<object width="624" height="380"><param name="movie" value="http://svt.se/embededflash/2316557/play.swf"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain"></param><embed src="http://svt.se/embededflash/2316557/play.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" width="624" height="380"></embed></object><br />This is a short documentary clip by the Swedish national television. Ali is a teenage boy from an unmentioned country - he could be anyone from anywhere, but circumstances made him a refugee in a small town in Sweden. He has to endure teasing from the very first day - other kids call him Chinese, Afghan, Turk, but always with curses. In the beginning, Ali says, he used to fight, but he realized that it's useless.<br />It's not easy for Ali to adapt to a situation where nobody speaks his language and nobody knows his past. But Ali finds a way that helps him release the accumulated stress and makes him dream of greater things - boxing. His host mother supports him.<br /><br />In the end, Ali says that he has an even bigger dream. When he dies, he wants people to miss him. He wants do do something good. Like so many other kids who deserve that chance to explore their abilities, regardless of war and persecution... Good luck, Ali, and keep on fighting!Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-812653162086365702010-10-22T16:36:00.003+02:002010-10-22T16:55:50.134+02:00Kaifeng JewsThe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews">Kaifeng Jews</a> are members of a small Jewish community that has existed in Kaifeng, in central China, for many hundreds of years - the earliest records of a Jewish community in Kaifeng are from the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). The ancestors of the Kaifeng Jews most likely came from Central Asia. Over the centuries, they intermarried with the local population but preserved their religion.<br /><br />Here is a report on German TV about a group of cute young Kaifeng Jews who are immigrating to Israel. Unlike the contemporary rabbinical Judaism, where the transmission of Judaism is matrilinear (if you have a mother who is a Jew, you are a proper Jew), the Kaifeng Jews base their Jewishness on patrilinear descent. So, to receive Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, Kaifeng Jews must undergo conversion, a long and complicated process.<br />"But the true challenge", the narrator says, "is to assert themselves in Israeli society." Just like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Jews">Ethiopian Jews</a>, Kaifeng Jews might find themselves considered second rate citizens by many other Israelis, simply due to their skin colour.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/97ZcZL7OQ-Y?fs=1&hl=en_GB"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/97ZcZL7OQ-Y?fs=1&hl=en_GB" width="425" height="344" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-25418224588355300942010-06-22T21:09:00.004+02:002010-06-22T21:40:15.998+02:00Central Asia's FinestFor chirayliq fans, the FIFA world cup offers a lot of dark and stocky men with powerful cheekbones or well-defined noses, but where are all the Central Asians? Look closer - at the moment, I'm watching the Greece-Argentina match because of this guy:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvYagd8UNJ3YmEBKs8_mMLGiNmrAHrC-WaxYTNxlmx0vqCnpgBIh8R_0UwNGM-cBvZ-fvCLiJoVZcKXifMvE8MWrx1K6G18Y_33D0kNHBeuG-6gBdGDW1xsSChyphenhyphen4yiGyzsMtmyIlXakwbE/s1600/irmatov-3.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvYagd8UNJ3YmEBKs8_mMLGiNmrAHrC-WaxYTNxlmx0vqCnpgBIh8R_0UwNGM-cBvZ-fvCLiJoVZcKXifMvE8MWrx1K6G18Y_33D0kNHBeuG-6gBdGDW1xsSChyphenhyphen4yiGyzsMtmyIlXakwbE/s400/irmatov-3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485682418272837042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Ravshan Irmatov, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1286616/Graham-Polls-World-Cup-Official-Line-Therell-funny-business-Uzbekistan-referee-Algeria-showdown.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Asia's referee of the year 2008 & 2009</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1286616/Graham-Polls-World-Cup-Official-Line-Therell-funny-business-Uzbekistan-referee-Algeria-showdown.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Graham Poll</a> at the Daily Mail described him in these ominous terms before the England-Algeria match last week:<br /><p></p><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Uzbekistan’s Ravshan Irmatov is a young man at 32, but [...] there will be no playing around for Asia’s finest referee.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Irmatov is a correct referee — by saying that, I mean he is firm, strong and robotic in his reactions.<br /></span></p><span style="font-size:85%;">Reputations mean nothing to him; any technical offence will lead to a card. </span></blockquote><br />The star referee is <a href="http://www.the-afc.com/en/news/26926-irmatov-delighted-with-world-cup-selection">the first Uzbek</a> to be selected to the world cup. Rafael Ilyasov (Uzbekistan) and Bahadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan) were selected as assistant referees. Irmatov's international career since 2003 is <a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/worldcup/201006/47266.asp">quite impressive</a>. On the website of the Uzbekistan football league, he recalls <a href="http://www.pfl.uz/index.php?act=news&section=12&subsec=9&news_id=385">some memorable events </a>during his career. Irmatov has already officiated at two world cups before, which makes him <a href="http://www.the-afc.com/en/football-development/referees/29466-irmatov-going-great-guns">stand out</a> among the referees this year.<br /><br />For some cute reason, the FIFA website does not only tell us his height (183 cm) and occupation (school football instructor), but also his mother tongue (Uzbek) and his hobbies (football, swimming, tennis). It is quite interesting to see what many of the referees do in their regular life. There are engineers, postmen, accountants, car mechanics, policemen...Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-27379478124721532462010-06-15T11:38:00.009+02:002010-06-24T12:31:08.496+02:00What is happening in Kyrgyzstan?<div>It is still unclear what the reasons for the ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan are. There are speculations that it was orchestrated by Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the former Kyrgyz president who was ousted following protests in April. Some point at perceived class differences coinciding with ethnicity - that ethnic Uzbeks are by ethnic Kyrgyz people viewed as generally wealthier than ethnic Kyrgyz people. Kyrgyzstan is one of Central Asia's poorest countries, with hardly any natural resources, and many families that had been relying on migrant work have been hit hard by the world's financial crisis. Such a situation can, of course, easily be abused by those who wish to stir up violence for political reasons.</div><div><br /></div>Here is an eyewitness account by a <a href="http://www.peacecorps.gov/">Peace Corps</a> volunteer from Osh:<br /><div><br /></div><div>-----------------</div><div><br /></div>A PCV's story from Osh City: READ THIS<br />Posted by: "theo davis" bridalboogie@yahoo.com<br />Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:11 am (PDT)<br /><br />This is from a PCV stationed in Osh City. It's a shocking story and they need our help. I called the US Embassy in Bishkek and they said they are still just trying to rescue all the Americans down there. There needs to be an intervention down there by Russia, the US and/or the UN to stabilize things.<br /><br />Peace Corps Volunteers first hand experience in Southern Kyrgyzstan<br /><br />Yesterday at 9:34pm<br /><br /><i>Hi all,<br /><br />Before I explain anything, let me just say that I am completely safe. I and the other peace corps volunteers (except for 3 village volunteers in Osh who will be moved tomorrow but are safe right now) have been moved to the American military base outside of the Kyrgyz capitol of Bishkek. I totally and completely safe right now, and I will definitely never be returning to Osh.<br /><br />I don't know if you have been following the news. Mostly just NPR and Al Jazeera have reported, but they know very little as the conflict is so bad no one can get in.<br /><br />I just had the most terrifying experience of my life. I'm going to let you know so you can get a small picture of what it is like where I live. And I am only letting you know because I am now out of the conflict.<br /><br />It was Friday at 1am and I was awoken by a phone call from another friend in the Peace Corps who lives in my neighborhood in Osh. He was wondering if I heard any strange noises on the streets. I didn't at that point, but I got up and looked out my balcony (it must be noted that I am the only volunteer in Osh who lives on the main street with my windows facing it as well, so they wanted me to look for them. I am on the 2nd floor). What I saw was horrifying. I looked to my right and saw a fire burning in the street about a block away and men screaming loudly around it. I thought they were just screaming to put out the fire. I waited a bit and noticed the fire growning and growing. It cast a red glow across the whole street I lived on. I then turned to the left and saw a hundred or more local men walking down towards my building carrying axes and shotguns. They were yelling cheers and shooting into the air. They began to set fire to more buildings around me, while breaking the glass and doors of the stores on the first floor of my building and the buildings around me. I was scared and had no idea what to do so I called our safety officer at Peace Corps and she had no idea what was going on (I woke her up). More and more men gathered in the red glow of the burning buildings around me (at least 300 by now), and they began to throw rocks at buildings. I was walking towards the bathroom to seek cover (as this is the only room in my apartment that doesn't have a window facing the street), and a large rock smashed through my window and flew right by my head. I was lucky to have missed it as it was a fist sized stone. I spent the rest of the night hiding in my bathroom, staying on the phone with peace corps, and sneaking peeks to see if my building was on fire. Luckily just as my building was going to get caught by the flames, the fire department came, dispersed the crowd and put out the fire (which I am surprised they put out so much because we don't have fire hydrants here).<br /><br />I can't even properly describe the terror I felt. I have never felt so trapped in my life. I didn't know what to do if my building caught on fire because if I ran outside I would have surely been killed. I am so grateful that the fire stopped when it did. It was also incredibly terrifying because this incident was about 2 hours long. I spent the rest of the night packing my emergency bag and trying to rest in the bathtub, but I was unsuccessful as I was so nervous about men climbing onto my balcony or my apartment being set ablaze. I can't get the image out of my head of all those mens and guns shadows destroying my neighborhood.<br /><br />I spent the whole time praying for dawn because I thought it would get better with light. Well, it didn't. 5 o'clock hit and Kyrgyz men came with crowbars and started smashing up the stores right across the street from my building. This continued until a crowd of Uzbek men came and chased them away with rocks. Yes, if you didn't know, this whole conflict is about the ethnic tension between the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, possibly started by a third party for political reasons.<br /><br />Hundreds of Uzbeks gathered again on my street, but soon scattered into the distant neighborhoods because of police. I was then called by Peace Corps and told to move about a block away to another Peace Corps volunteers house, where many of us would gather to be safe. I did so, and it was relatively safe. 6 of us spent the rest of that first day trying to rest, conserve our energy (I didnt get to eat for 2 days because the gas and electricity were shut off and no stores were open), and hope for the best. We just heard distant fighting and shots the rest of that day and then that night military tanks were roaming the city firing into crowds to disperse them.<br /><br />The next day (Saturday), we all woke up and got the 4 other PC volunteers in the city to join us (thats 10 now). We were told by PC that we were leaving to the airport to catch a flight to the capital, but the roads were blocked and shooting was heavy on the way. We then had to wait for a new plan. In the mean time, some local Kyrgyz threw a bottle and rock into our window and smashed it. We had to create an emergency plan because we heard that molotov cocktails were being thrown into windows, so we needed to do fire prevention. We positioned the bed and cushions against all the windows, hoping that a molotov would bounce off back into the street. Luckily this was never tested. We spent the rest of the afternoon in complete silence (all phones were off except for mine to conserve our batteries. I kept mine on for communication with PC), and getting many different changing plans from PC.<br /><br />Finally, at about 6pm we were picked up by 5 kyrgyz men (trusted and hired by PC) who had masks on and guns. They were to escort us to a bus that would take us to helicoptor. We left with them, but the bus got lost so we were exposed on the main street for 20 minutes. It was so eery as all the streets were empty, except for when random cars would drive by with dozens of men and guns in them. One of the cars was stopped on the way by a group of Kyrgyz who pointed their guns at the volunteers in it and screamed, "If any of you are Uzbeks we will kill you all." Luckily our drivers were Kyrgyz and we were somewhat "safer" because we were in Kyrgyz territory. They went away and we spent the next 20 minutes trying to get the bus to come to us while watching troops of Kyrgyz driving past us with guns. We were so scared of being shot at this point. Luckily, we got to the bus that was controlled by the Kyrgyzstan border control, who was to take us to a helicoptor in the city. We got in and after driving a certain way we were blocked by a crowd of hundreds and hundreds of Kyrgyz men who were demanding the guns from the military tank escorting us. The military refused and started firing guns into the air. We all ducked down, but I saw that more gunshots were being fired around us by the local kyrgyz and then rocks and sticks were being smashed against our car windows. We were in this position for about 5 minutes and we were all in control, but I truly felt for the first time in my life that I could have died at that moment. So many men screaming, so many shots in my direction, so much anger. I just could truly see myself not surviving that moment. Again, i can't describe how that danger feels. It is beyond numbing.<br /><br />Luckily the tank eventually decided to plow through the crowd and we followed. We made it to the heli base and were lifted to the Osh airport where we got a charter flight to Bishkek. We are now safe at the base while our homes and friends burn in the fires of ethnic conflict.<br /><br />While we feel grateful to be alive and gone, I personally feel guilty because I am so privileged to have the ability to be lifted out of the danger like that while my local friends and coworkers hide for their lives. It is a horrible feeling to have left them to die. Hundreds are dead already, thousands are injured. 150,000 Uzbeks have fled to the Uzbek border; women are handing their babies off to Uzbekistan soldiers at the border so that at least they survive.<br /><br />Whats worse is that the Uzbeks are not only blamed for this whole thing (as the ethic and hated minority), but they are being targeted not only by Kyrgyz, but also the military. We hear from our Uzbek friends that police are openly killing defenseless Uzbeks on the street. Entire Uzbek neighborhoods are destroyed in Osh. I will never forget the last image I had, flying away in a heli over the city, seeing entire blocks of houses scorched to the ground, with smoke and fire covering the whole city. It will haunt me forever.<br /><br />Whats worse is that the Kyrgyz government is only providing humanitarian assistance to the Kyrgyz, and leaving the Uzbek out. Please urge your congressperson to push the american government to urge the Kyrgyz government to provide equal aid to all ethnicities. PLEASE. These are my friends and neighbors that are being murdered. Just take a few minutes and call/email. It is an emergency situation, no time to lose. Please leave my name out of your message though.<br /><br />If you want to see the most accurate news please check out <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/">Al Jazeeras Central Asia section</a>.<br /><br />Email me if you have questions. I have good internet at the base. The rest of the country is completely stable as Uzbeks are mainly just in the south, so don't worry about me being in the north now.<br /><br />I love you all and I am think I will be home in America soon. Help the victims of Kyrgyzstans latest violence.<br /><br />Theo Davis<br /><br />Contact my cell from the US, dial: 011 971 50 4408776</i><div><i>Download skype.com and we can talk for FREE computer to computer. Our skype user name is megsmonty. It's easy.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>----------------</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpO0UhIgg2VkDmiP50KM7ECW9srz7OjGMBHda_sddJq94ww4IK3GCa6WnjPTEi6u8dVILoONzcQHYNXe2fhdF3JOMK3KDauaOxSLrHz-3KerWLOSvh48k61u8YYLBXie9FcXIfN2ylMZl/s1600/12.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpO0UhIgg2VkDmiP50KM7ECW9srz7OjGMBHda_sddJq94ww4IK3GCa6WnjPTEi6u8dVILoONzcQHYNXe2fhdF3JOMK3KDauaOxSLrHz-3KerWLOSvh48k61u8YYLBXie9FcXIfN2ylMZl/s400/12.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937702443833122" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 283px; " /></a></i></div><div>Photo from <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/0eTs2Er2DreKB?q=kyrgyz">AP via Daylife</a>. Ethnic Uzbeks try to extinguish a fire in their neighbourhood in Jalal-Abad, Sunday, June 13th. </div><div><br /></div><div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydBdlQMnPu45CiPxi0htycyLqNxlvpeXHUxFBJRcK8RDsKolruETsSlvSGOzbDghKIpESifJecjTpZVu8_ogHBFOeVBDmA1uHc0mR89qB3b_c_ESXJnu_VWF1_ivjxnUGpqN921R0QJXa/s1600/11.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydBdlQMnPu45CiPxi0htycyLqNxlvpeXHUxFBJRcK8RDsKolruETsSlvSGOzbDghKIpESifJecjTpZVu8_ogHBFOeVBDmA1uHc0mR89qB3b_c_ESXJnu_VWF1_ivjxnUGpqN921R0QJXa/s400/11.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937699683954674" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></i></div><div>Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/084agTUe2M0EP?q=kyrgyz">Reuters via Daylife</a>. A road block with the sign "Kyrgyz zone" in Osh, June 13th.</div><i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaARRvXWiRYTDXcAEU56sa2E2LU9Gv880UwisE9WJLqJRBWcrtCY7ChKwl6-bVdtC2jdZgvI4-pEkc94wh0-sw2W_4vGQv63Hb3lFuH5tD1wR6e1oGeGOPt3rwlBS2C9HzAH6HDmHIDFo/s1600/1.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipaARRvXWiRYTDXcAEU56sa2E2LU9Gv880UwisE9WJLqJRBWcrtCY7ChKwl6-bVdtC2jdZgvI4-pEkc94wh0-sw2W_4vGQv63Hb3lFuH5tD1wR6e1oGeGOPt3rwlBS2C9HzAH6HDmHIDFo/s400/1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937456161551362" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo from <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/01meausgonfpC?q=osh">Getty Images via Daylife</a>. People helping an elderly ethnic Uzbek man sitting in front of his burnt-out house in Osh, June 15th.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2TepX6N49WFzwlwUFpukk5FifVo9Yc4ysuZaBCR4fpusKyv5XYcI6L4VFJfmDbhtpj08qlOTe-xAlb6QhMPugZHMUAhZmqAupd2iU1eroj1hfTDGUdBGqr-lhY0LqKx2rUWVIdyn0kTY/s1600/5.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge2TepX6N49WFzwlwUFpukk5FifVo9Yc4ysuZaBCR4fpusKyv5XYcI6L4VFJfmDbhtpj08qlOTe-xAlb6QhMPugZHMUAhZmqAupd2iU1eroj1hfTDGUdBGqr-lhY0LqKx2rUWVIdyn0kTY/s400/5.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937480351309666" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 254px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/07JOcmP00Ggea?q=osh">AP via Daylife</a>. Ethnic Uzbeks guard a road to an Uzbek neighbourhood near Osh, armed with sticks and and hunting rifles, on Saturday, June 12th. </span></div></i></span></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqdZBh1LGhEHhFbHW6yVDs-WVN6Xn0nEzp4jI2APEBv4knc7LMzaT5We5laofzSEhZQc5GAtN19QaLdoRzIbgcXDBN0z5Lxyntd8j_JysIpwMjlpna72lAa4ZKUKatYR3Yy8_vSYZNFLD/s1600/6.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqdZBh1LGhEHhFbHW6yVDs-WVN6Xn0nEzp4jI2APEBv4knc7LMzaT5We5laofzSEhZQc5GAtN19QaLdoRzIbgcXDBN0z5Lxyntd8j_JysIpwMjlpna72lAa4ZKUKatYR3Yy8_vSYZNFLD/s400/6.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937612217401394" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/04az9ei0Gz9bn?q=osh">AP via Daylife</a>. Members of the ethnic Uzbek community, armed with sticks and Molotov cocktails to protect their lives and property, look at smoke rising from the burning Uzbek villages set on fire by the Kyrgyz attackers near Osh, on Saturday, June 12th.</span></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqdZBh1LGhEHhFbHW6yVDs-WVN6Xn0nEzp4jI2APEBv4knc7LMzaT5We5laofzSEhZQc5GAtN19QaLdoRzIbgcXDBN0z5Lxyntd8j_JysIpwMjlpna72lAa4ZKUKatYR3Yy8_vSYZNFLD/s1600/6.jpg"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgls8uy5V7kbhKvC6dLpq4Wv-ivd28dVCpDTIEfMXlpcxhMxWn7ah4SMhfTd34phF_Ue5W1_GgjOAkEpp1ukzGOnKzUZx86h3Wr2jB2AZZD0biwjnfre_7-MghyphenhyphenGxD0oHP9hxoIRaIsV3lj/s1600/4.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgls8uy5V7kbhKvC6dLpq4Wv-ivd28dVCpDTIEfMXlpcxhMxWn7ah4SMhfTd34phF_Ue5W1_GgjOAkEpp1ukzGOnKzUZx86h3Wr2jB2AZZD0biwjnfre_7-MghyphenhyphenGxD0oHP9hxoIRaIsV3lj/s400/4.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937476172519138" style="cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 400px; " /></a></i></div></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gVH0sB9Eq39B?q=osh">Getty Images via Daylife</a>. An injured Ethnic Uzbek man rests in an Uzbek neighbourhood in Osh, June 14th.</span></div></span></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjYy0WtCb-z7OEYOG_w4oml4qRTq4WIsKOri2OI5vW_rXBPCJDp_vgKRaqKhu-IGmLmg04iT02rt_6dqGhGUGzt6R8-K6Bu8xudWReCOVinKuwrU-hQstMiq7aWsWBATsrMAGmkNfLpDH/s1600/10.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjYy0WtCb-z7OEYOG_w4oml4qRTq4WIsKOri2OI5vW_rXBPCJDp_vgKRaqKhu-IGmLmg04iT02rt_6dqGhGUGzt6R8-K6Bu8xudWReCOVinKuwrU-hQstMiq7aWsWBATsrMAGmkNfLpDH/s400/10.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937629235805314" style="cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/0eir5ju8K8dVa?q=kyrgyz">AP via Daylife</a>. Ethnic Uzbek refugees from Osh wait at the border for permission to cross into Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14th.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgre_qfByotui59heiYPQVqJJGQ7UQuhugjsLTTSAgVR5L56yEx7qzjgauC0rb7HunSoet-Cf8hUo9DXY8wrUgk0WQdsJxZTWDOxJtlJwrBONGJC77oQ8D8R5Qp0eP7KALMxSYyOojop1hg/s1600/246440262.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgre_qfByotui59heiYPQVqJJGQ7UQuhugjsLTTSAgVR5L56yEx7qzjgauC0rb7HunSoet-Cf8hUo9DXY8wrUgk0WQdsJxZTWDOxJtlJwrBONGJC77oQ8D8R5Qp0eP7KALMxSYyOojop1hg/s400/246440262.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486283777922036114" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></span></div><div>Photo by <a href="http://rian.ru/photolents/20100615/246441079_7.html">Andrei Stenin/RIA Novosti</a>. An Uzbek special forces soldier helps a baby across the border. With the enormous number of refugees trying to get to Uzbekistan, the Uzbek authorities are prioritizing wounded, women and children.</div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0kbeAuxpVOF5w2qsjMFEclRQeTgoJYsCPXoRs5X453m3FsdsBQ-gE8DKbtWduXnWrLN24_CSy1n3iJhdjr_0tk3ZgHOFb8XC1vHBfi7JG_2wlLIBhrJtQkxGIV1v0OBtZg6mMm2YhAhH/s1600/9.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx0kbeAuxpVOF5w2qsjMFEclRQeTgoJYsCPXoRs5X453m3FsdsBQ-gE8DKbtWduXnWrLN24_CSy1n3iJhdjr_0tk3ZgHOFb8XC1vHBfi7JG_2wlLIBhrJtQkxGIV1v0OBtZg6mMm2YhAhH/s400/9.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937624653535874" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/01Yy0LC0Jx3pt?q=kyrgyz">Getty Images via Daylife</a>. Pakistani citizens evacuated from Kyrgyzstan sit in the waiting lounge following their arrival at Chaklala military airbase in Rawalpindi on June 15th. About 1200 Pakistani citizens, mostly students, were in Kirgizstan when the clashes broke out. One Pakistani citizen has been killed. A group of fifteen was held for ransom, but Kyrgyz security forces were able to free them on June 14th.</span></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUn8nGO6hb_f9UrlvnNlO0ryn2ml9n9Oj0pI7tJKaJhEQNdg14kh54dZgnZT9zmXwLJzq_KL2fiqVCBCQPK3Ivit4KN1N1QlHsXrgsT3xhyphenhyphengVUNoheZ_9o1VEZkTGO6Oy3_YkhCvufefVR/s1600/8.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUn8nGO6hb_f9UrlvnNlO0ryn2ml9n9Oj0pI7tJKaJhEQNdg14kh54dZgnZT9zmXwLJzq_KL2fiqVCBCQPK3Ivit4KN1N1QlHsXrgsT3xhyphenhyphengVUNoheZ_9o1VEZkTGO6Oy3_YkhCvufefVR/s400/8.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482937619544461090" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px; " /></a></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Photo by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/photo/03u4dkpfImbG7?q=uzbek+refugees">AP via Daylife</a>. A traditional Uzbek dish is cooked for refugees who fled from Kyrgyzstan in a refugee camp on the border near the Uzbek village of Jalal-Kuduk, Monday, June 14th. </span></div>Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-34213112155564763202010-06-05T19:41:00.006+02:002010-10-17T20:30:33.161+02:00Ben Bilirim<object height="505" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_jBzHVAofm0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_jBzHVAofm0&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="505" width="640"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Just have to share this </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="" title="Barış Manço - Ben Bilirim">ç</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">ok güzel klip by</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="" title="Barış Manço - Ben Bilirim"> Barış Manço: <span style="font-style: italic;">Ben Bilirim</span> from 1975.<br /><br />Psychedelic/folk rocker, singer and composer </span></span>Barış Manço<span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="" title="Barış Manço - Ben Bilirim"> was a member of famous 1970's bands such as</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Moğollar</span> and funder of <span style="font-style: italic;">Kurtalar Ekspres</span>. He played with international artists and exchanged ideas with Turkish and foreign musicians, influencing numerous genres of modern pop and rock music in his homeland. His long hair and big mustache could be considered as a provocation to the conservative establishment, as well as a dedication to tradition...<br /></span>Ainur Elmgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05503629261796601589noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-77245910803158817612010-05-31T10:07:00.005+02:002010-05-31T10:29:36.831+02:00In light of this morning's news ...... (<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/at-least-10-activists-killed-in-israel-navy-clashes-onboard-gaza-aid-flotilla-1.293089">Haaretz</a>, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/10195838.stm">BBC</a>, <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/">Al-Jazeera</a>) ...<br /><br />Here is a link to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous/2693708456/">a portrait by the photographer AnomalousNYC</a>.<br />It's part of his <i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous/sets/522872/">Palestine Project</a></i>.<div><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span></div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div>Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-42995703296199782102010-05-30T10:19:00.010+02:002010-05-30T11:17:15.254+02:00Chirayliq Eurovision 2010No chirayliq victory this time - for a change! - but some quite chirayliq contestants nevertheless!<br /><br />Turkey once again picked up the Turco-Finnish tradition of sending a band that plays real music to the contest:<br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pdw27j_usP0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Pdw27j_usP0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />maNga (nothing to do with Japanese comics, I think) take their musical influences from nu-metal, hip-hop, electronic music and Anatolian tunes. Their song for the ESC, <i>We Could Be the Same</i>, has a slightly poppier sound than usual, and the lyrics are in English, when usually they sing in Turkish. But in any case they are cute.<br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a-IhsDVq-NQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a-IhsDVq-NQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Russia was represented by Peter Nalitch and his musical collective, with the humorous song <i>Lost And Forgotten</i>. Peter's grandfather Zahid Nalić was a Bosnian opera singer from Tuzla, hence his Balkanic surname. He became famous in 2007 with his Youtube video "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOzkN8dHnjk">Gitar</a>" ...<br /><br /><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GelsXCyV5Nk&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GelsXCyV5Nk&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Harel Skaat represented Israel with <i>Milim </i>("Words"). He is one of the two cute Harels of Israeli pop music - the other one is Harel Moyal. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaFtZuFG0Pc">Here they perform together</a>.)<br /><br />Here is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm8jXJXZvbw">a really cute interview</a> with Harel Skaat from before the contest ...<br /><br />Hmm, how is it that the best songs and the cutest guys usually coincide ...? :o)Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-52825188638044819522010-05-28T01:35:00.014+02:002010-05-28T04:41:42.723+02:00Ran Danker, hotness from Israel<i>*Sorry if this text is totally incoherent, but not only is it 4 AM, but my brain is also for the most part incapacitated by the dazzling handsomeness of Ran Danker, 26 years old.*</i><br /><br /><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424327/">Eyes Wide Open</a></i> is a film about the Ultra-Orthodox family father Aaron (Zohar Strauss), who hires the homeless Yeshiva student Ezri (Ran Danker) to work as an apprentice in his butcher's shop. Their friendship develops into an emotional and sexual relationship, but they are being closely watched by their community, and the religious authorities, their fellow believers and the "purity police" will absolutely not tolerate anything of the like.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7zIVyGbefeBCmhS8Qj_GxKpH93-7pnr1oYVV7irsAQPEEPOyPKE0oS4ebTzLId8pK5FZMYxNQS60zmxE2Ec6FZKAlujPvfBEfWHPc1TX5TttlNhfltcRlS0DVDcojP_hHCL8nSRVLWjF/s1600/1.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7zIVyGbefeBCmhS8Qj_GxKpH93-7pnr1oYVV7irsAQPEEPOyPKE0oS4ebTzLId8pK5FZMYxNQS60zmxE2Ec6FZKAlujPvfBEfWHPc1TX5TttlNhfltcRlS0DVDcojP_hHCL8nSRVLWjF/s400/1.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131396180860178" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP4e7_VdkX3PJjh07K5gdn5Fh9Q-wNzi26ctmJwW55xkseKAwF8Ct-rMsExdiyLsNHYDEhs5O1981LSQHP2Bbq-S_UEgqMaSeqFdE67jBpT6FUhhlNzeyCD4SjDtraVW5P3yihIETp47Z/s1600/2.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTP4e7_VdkX3PJjh07K5gdn5Fh9Q-wNzi26ctmJwW55xkseKAwF8Ct-rMsExdiyLsNHYDEhs5O1981LSQHP2Bbq-S_UEgqMaSeqFdE67jBpT6FUhhlNzeyCD4SjDtraVW5P3yihIETp47Z/s400/2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131403993975682" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZrQokoRaG-dcTzY5dUcrhlGUX2nyGn0tTyVnJfuO0JK0R83aqgSvtdhCD3G7WVcbrAnGrRNBlaDLchMjSlO2rjF9Li1lTAQfXTW77NGkERCD5DTh4yARq8bfrn3Aye9eKCuIv3KX-kch/s1600/2.png"></a>Ezri, who "scribbles a bit" in his free time, offers to draw Aaron's portrait.<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yZ740WTiLTMhOhh_9T24HrQGbYwKp8ZdHklchSoLkRMEdsl0HyXyF7_QcYjv9UvQ1wT3hiUUoWVmsCp6b_h22Tuq4UyK1Awf8vIfiymT4MfksiGi_nLudMnSYMGRztJjy39VGNeqFDTL/s1600/1.png"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3tjpVeSwnPxe3rnZANjBLXBBM709sOVb5SGTnDHJkUltXKbLXuO5XjNTrTtUO2GNonN_ReiwQcH5pbDvPZrSunoSvzUZr4T27FgT6aFl3NOaI1x5-aAPQLNx809pmXFNw-3_7x6wpvyx/s1600/3.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3tjpVeSwnPxe3rnZANjBLXBBM709sOVb5SGTnDHJkUltXKbLXuO5XjNTrTtUO2GNonN_ReiwQcH5pbDvPZrSunoSvzUZr4T27FgT6aFl3NOaI1x5-aAPQLNx809pmXFNw-3_7x6wpvyx/s400/3.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131407410234770" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawxgaFGM8WBMZHchonUY08B_zHTAys7Yz-fe8YyF-mPRqJBTU-_bzSN1Kj_M8wJfxQoOED2YnDeYR6b9QqYhhdl_rm1dzXFfAOr1N55zshMrTLSEQobzwMPY3ASl8_W0F5y-OoC2voixm/s1600/4.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjawxgaFGM8WBMZHchonUY08B_zHTAys7Yz-fe8YyF-mPRqJBTU-_bzSN1Kj_M8wJfxQoOED2YnDeYR6b9QqYhhdl_rm1dzXFfAOr1N55zshMrTLSEQobzwMPY3ASl8_W0F5y-OoC2voixm/s400/4.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131413384030786" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasjYms3_G-BhMp1DvfnW4TtW-7Cj59oXsgUv7ZW3D27GeCpmHWnfIsMqVwZVneG9qsOXyZjU4urGB8braILyiFg7Al-74pBK_3aRyJMo97Xn2_f2oWax8UiRFYVZlzocpMXHxmpmWjFsi/s1600/4.png"></a>Ezri convinces him to go outside the city for once, to take a ritual bath together in an ice cold pool.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10-Etf9WYff13MnRr8i8qRSmCa9tCpgOT2YIfrwl0GqwXTBordR1sg_8sZHqYo2vNIcYIOxxj4F8jXqKpD9ScDE9NmcCYbrHxoeSYPK-dKjQxHH0NMKEYKybLwuST3Dd-a_JXhaMy3jI6/s1600/5.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10-Etf9WYff13MnRr8i8qRSmCa9tCpgOT2YIfrwl0GqwXTBordR1sg_8sZHqYo2vNIcYIOxxj4F8jXqKpD9ScDE9NmcCYbrHxoeSYPK-dKjQxHH0NMKEYKybLwuST3Dd-a_JXhaMy3jI6/s400/5.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131421854026514" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUy4AvD9jKEnsKv3NlftkGhRkKrR-ISxnaELVoh04GT8l5nbG95hBnCoJUBdLvFiYKbik-O7p8aMnbnK9vCBx__qJ2E0IkeZnepgfctMznWDMW6dT6Ozy-w3A3lWmmFiZ3Znz7ZvP1tK5/s1600/6.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUy4AvD9jKEnsKv3NlftkGhRkKrR-ISxnaELVoh04GT8l5nbG95hBnCoJUBdLvFiYKbik-O7p8aMnbnK9vCBx__qJ2E0IkeZnepgfctMznWDMW6dT6Ozy-w3A3lWmmFiZ3Znz7ZvP1tK5/s400/6.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131832943265154" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-r4ldjTyvsWfbP9QMrCSjuiTVyKnuJeGwyfYOmOdASxNoKx7TPaLp8mrHn9LERK_zpIzbXTswsDrd1TPx5ITyLggJEI0NdYgPQ88d7sLnQ8XQdVGd-3heUcssolVvskj0J__CE5yaOr8/s1600/7.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-r4ldjTyvsWfbP9QMrCSjuiTVyKnuJeGwyfYOmOdASxNoKx7TPaLp8mrHn9LERK_zpIzbXTswsDrd1TPx5ITyLggJEI0NdYgPQ88d7sLnQ8XQdVGd-3heUcssolVvskj0J__CE5yaOr8/s400/7.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131840845558242" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcMYnUr0S_LX2L-9JNPrzyevCAUxoC457kKzVSM43pECs7-yjww3BO0VB4si9G8-pYIROcG9xOS4WKAol4FBxQckl_llZreSMimdisPf1siv4h1GOxKr2WKsDRVLFPI4FTA7wFt-SppSw/s1600/8.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqcMYnUr0S_LX2L-9JNPrzyevCAUxoC457kKzVSM43pECs7-yjww3BO0VB4si9G8-pYIROcG9xOS4WKAol4FBxQckl_llZreSMimdisPf1siv4h1GOxKr2WKsDRVLFPI4FTA7wFt-SppSw/s400/8.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131840153796546" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY7_xvDvTI5uxepTMYj0S1a8dILvElCn99_iWyJcXSw1Qvm8-H1fUGqTwst04if8sOTv_eh8smpgkkswXuLGsidhNtKcmC6MtN96DdlHvEwoP14R5bY8pOb63Gt_cikLeeAVrGCzYsLtHc/s1600/9.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY7_xvDvTI5uxepTMYj0S1a8dILvElCn99_iWyJcXSw1Qvm8-H1fUGqTwst04if8sOTv_eh8smpgkkswXuLGsidhNtKcmC6MtN96DdlHvEwoP14R5bY8pOb63Gt_cikLeeAVrGCzYsLtHc/s400/9.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476131853504346002" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The situation is obviously extremely complicated for Aaron, who has a family and a business to take care of. But as an atheist it's easy to start asking myself why Ezri can't just leave the Ultra-Orthodox community in the Old City and go to secular, tolerant Tel Aviv or something. But for one thing, he is very young; he was only just kicked out of his Yeshiva. And most important of all, this is his community and his religion just as much as everyone else's. He believes in God just as much as everyone else.</div><div><br /></div><div>About 90 percent of the film was shot in Jaffa, and 10 percent in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, where the story is set, in quick "hit-and-run" shots without official permission, due to the controversial nature of the film. The end result is still very realistic and recognizable as Mea Shearim.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a very subtle film that neither glorifies nor demonizes anybody, told in simple and beautiful images in limestone and pale green. </div><div><br /></div><div>* * *</div><div>... And, of course, Ran Danker (actor, pop singer, model) is so hot that I was in exhilarated spasms every second he was on the screen. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here are some bonus photos of him ... </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqA7dNDikz23PF5GHsnDrFMb9q0GBsWgj3k8eJrtNfQ2quAF2xm7umhHdvsHFlgmC097_JzSGEAP5b5Is8NopvWLXKefI2mW9c_FhPkRwsjUB78nyuJSk8raT3RlDSeZNANr2TcJzX8Bk8/s1600/COPYOF~1_wa.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqA7dNDikz23PF5GHsnDrFMb9q0GBsWgj3k8eJrtNfQ2quAF2xm7umhHdvsHFlgmC097_JzSGEAP5b5Is8NopvWLXKefI2mW9c_FhPkRwsjUB78nyuJSk8raT3RlDSeZNANr2TcJzX8Bk8/s400/COPYOF~1_wa.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102309879182146" style="cursor: pointer; width: 370px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhEIgt0sGOXbXH62VZXIoZ92HHdhwWqpWEtn1dM2h-6TZBiCYFS_85V3aaQeIcUdxfY-3uK47YbafiDpfYADmsVXFU1r5EzsTy-oN5RdHsmZRE2RnURnKtfBlL0Nrt3Q7p7FYBLNMoFL0/s1600/boimvald2_C.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLhEIgt0sGOXbXH62VZXIoZ92HHdhwWqpWEtn1dM2h-6TZBiCYFS_85V3aaQeIcUdxfY-3uK47YbafiDpfYADmsVXFU1r5EzsTy-oN5RdHsmZRE2RnURnKtfBlL0Nrt3Q7p7FYBLNMoFL0/s400/boimvald2_C.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476127504456834594" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 303px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9hNyckqoLRmUqtMkkK98fTbfote9WnU1OCVBzQzbDs1CbYHDtUwk1ifccG-ef5zhGfu2YCWhihrd1MPnqAFE38ooQcqq2aK2VuNPf6Re7g8qgxveu9gFBrGXJIgfnNlJXLnuAmRBM6lv/s1600/14.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9hNyckqoLRmUqtMkkK98fTbfote9WnU1OCVBzQzbDs1CbYHDtUwk1ifccG-ef5zhGfu2YCWhihrd1MPnqAFE38ooQcqq2aK2VuNPf6Re7g8qgxveu9gFBrGXJIgfnNlJXLnuAmRBM6lv/s400/14.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102299123444914" style="cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>He was hairier than this in <i>Eyes Wide Open</i>, so either he went through a second puberty in between, or he probably shaves or crops his chest hair. ;_;</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5_cPsR16WtY_x0LoJ88E-0wRFO6EOjaU-Ho6DKp-6ZihftAYJxmBKgjKado9nDeDU8_Caw2MIQyuC_hDARxfdJRlkXNar5OmL3gvPr4e3PHTBxbjMfpcXY_7KX2R7dPjES2ISQ-uPk1P/s1600/2166628_7.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5_cPsR16WtY_x0LoJ88E-0wRFO6EOjaU-Ho6DKp-6ZihftAYJxmBKgjKado9nDeDU8_Caw2MIQyuC_hDARxfdJRlkXNar5OmL3gvPr4e3PHTBxbjMfpcXY_7KX2R7dPjES2ISQ-uPk1P/s400/2166628_7.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102304543118194" style="cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0MMQRkXaXkbkCzF52yLi2KzI8nXzVhivNh3pgEAwV4FI9JBLxv8Chyphenhyphen7_JvfToDXN_mIf1zkRi1wb4F67ba5gCVbrKx7QwWdpkRuvtYYYoZJfh_drsTysyIxfu0Xg0KCnvhXzqf5iEtqzu/s1600/randanker3rg8.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0MMQRkXaXkbkCzF52yLi2KzI8nXzVhivNh3pgEAwV4FI9JBLxv8Chyphenhyphen7_JvfToDXN_mIf1zkRi1wb4F67ba5gCVbrKx7QwWdpkRuvtYYYoZJfh_drsTysyIxfu0Xg0KCnvhXzqf5iEtqzu/s400/randanker3rg8.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476121279975789106" style="cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 389px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfaek9V_QonPW3ikX_KaDkQ5ktvCOxMkIM8H-eBKXDJrd6LuQVdSuvMtUzVKOdY3_VYSuSJL-LQ5jz244fG5fstSUw0WuEoPcozINphrOrwPxCO8cJiXtq4-06i-JoazlKjJjceamDu_uD/s1600/DankerRan_wa.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfaek9V_QonPW3ikX_KaDkQ5ktvCOxMkIM8H-eBKXDJrd6LuQVdSuvMtUzVKOdY3_VYSuSJL-LQ5jz244fG5fstSUw0WuEoPcozINphrOrwPxCO8cJiXtq4-06i-JoazlKjJjceamDu_uD/s400/DankerRan_wa.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102314276013762" style="cursor: pointer; width: 326px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm795c7ucehgbcbMKZLbyIaOIBHawo0udef61PKWOLlV7TCcd_13JNJ7oGxl-iw2_lkFc1jMUutUrUFS_lFc9UcaZrYMw5jUFB8-pWz-Bg4nfGHW58eB-4SoZaxAEqAcv7JNThKWfrkMji/s1600/ran6.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm795c7ucehgbcbMKZLbyIaOIBHawo0udef61PKWOLlV7TCcd_13JNJ7oGxl-iw2_lkFc1jMUutUrUFS_lFc9UcaZrYMw5jUFB8-pWz-Bg4nfGHW58eB-4SoZaxAEqAcv7JNThKWfrkMji/s400/ran6.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102318677392690" style="cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Our mum would tell him to wear his pants properly.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_Yz-P_WxSDln46hG4WzU20tpcnZfX7TRidtdkfEguCUDojrcP-fogYP-UQqqaJujew-TMHHyGrqEIOTw4he1vkjJ-xNYh7wGZnDHOa5OElIfTm_OVBNEbRwwm8ME857y0l6c2OKyuAU7/s1600/ran12.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ_Yz-P_WxSDln46hG4WzU20tpcnZfX7TRidtdkfEguCUDojrcP-fogYP-UQqqaJujew-TMHHyGrqEIOTw4he1vkjJ-xNYh7wGZnDHOa5OElIfTm_OVBNEbRwwm8ME857y0l6c2OKyuAU7/s400/ran12.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102614729507346" style="cursor: pointer; width: 286px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3XAAdl9sJ81hiWuPPjFEDCvS56lj9upp_zlKgeI364hWXlvE37cowkvjwACfwY-VpXXnaPYOmq66QrG2vSizLR6J2JYF9OkokO0Uxq1ND1CUiyCLu2frC_QRNM_MZ7Mf9vPgbb4RrzazD/s1600/RanDanker.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3XAAdl9sJ81hiWuPPjFEDCvS56lj9upp_zlKgeI364hWXlvE37cowkvjwACfwY-VpXXnaPYOmq66QrG2vSizLR6J2JYF9OkokO0Uxq1ND1CUiyCLu2frC_QRNM_MZ7Mf9vPgbb4RrzazD/s400/RanDanker.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476102623409611778" style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px; " /></a></div></div></div>Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7532136220616334351.post-73986393894930258382010-05-11T10:50:00.023+02:002010-05-11T18:02:31.179+02:00The "Kandahar captives"Recently <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1272018/">a big Russian film</a> has been released, which dramatizes the until now rather forgotten story about a Russian cargo plane crew that was held hostage for more than a year by the Taliban in 1995, but managed to escape with their own plane, after convincing their captors that this expensive plane, a great asset for the Taliban, needed regular maintenance. <div>The film stars some of the most popular Russian actors today, and seems to avoid as much of the back story as possible, instead focusing on individual crew members and their heroic feat. Which is kind of frustrating, because it's very interesting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the back story can be read in the book <i><a href="http://books.google.de/books?id=-c8mdTl29N0C&printsec=frontcover&hl=en">Merchant of death</a></i> by Douglas Farah and Stephen Brown. <div><br /></div><div>The plane was an air freighter owned by the Kazan-based company Aerostan, that had been leased by the company Transavia, owned by a man by the name of Viktor Bout. The secretive Bout, presumably born 1967 near Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, and a former Soviet military translator, was making "a significant amount of money" through his many air transport companies. In the 1990's he became the top private supplier and transporter of arms, with the reputation of one who would deliver no matter the circumstances. His clients have included both UNITA rebels and government forces in Angola, several sides in the wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bosnian Muslim forces, both government forces/Northern Alliance and the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as US army and private contractors in Iraq, while also carrying relief supplies for the UN to alleviate the same conflicts. He has always been careful to stay on the technically legal side, albeit frequently violating UN arms embargoes. (However, Bout was arrested in Bangkok 2008 and has been in prison until this day.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Bout's cargo planes would very often have to land and take off from airstrips so crude that they would have been impossible for modern freighters, and with no maintenance facilities whatsoever. But he used tough old Soviet planes - Antonovs, Ilyushins and Yakovlevs, some of them 40 year old models - for which such conditions were not a problem. The crews were just as tough, and able to do any necessary maintenance and repair by themselves. Mobutu Sese Seko, who in 1997 took off from Zaire into exile on an Antonov owned by Bout, as pursuing rebel forces fired a hail of bullets at the plane's fuselage, later commented: "We were lucky it was a Russian plane. If it had been a Boeing, it would have exploded."</div><div><br /></div><div>The Ilyushin Il-76 that was forced to land in Kandahar in 1995 was piloted by Vladimir Sharpatov, a decorated former Soviet Air Force pilot, who had been working on and off for Bout for years. This particular flight was just one of many routine runs Sharpatov flew shipping weapons from Tirana, Albania, to the government forces (later Northern Alliance) in Kabul, Afghanistan. At the time, Kandahar was controlled by the Taliban, who patrolled the air space around the city with a single MiG-21. Usually Sharpatov had no problems with the Taliban MiG if he just kept his plane at a safe distance, but this time he was apparently not so lucky. </div><div><br /></div><div>The plane was forced to land, and the crew of seven was held hostage by the Taliban for over a year. As they had been shipping weapons to the government forces, the Taliban assumed that Russia was providing military support to the Afghan government, and tried to pressure Moscow into releasing prisoners captured during the Soviet Union's war with Afghanistan. Since Bout operated independently, and the Russian government had no interest in getting mixed up in Afghanistan again, this was not true. Negotiations dragged on, and the crew was promised to be released many times, but nothing happened. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/bout.html">apparently</a> Viktor Bout saw the situation as an opportunity, and established business relations with the Taliban while negotiating for the release of his plane and crew. There are suspicions that the Taliban "let" the crew escape after reaching a sweet deal with Bout.</div><div><br /></div><div>When they returned to Russia, the crew was received as heroes, and certainly their ordeal and their daredevil escape should not be belittled, as they in any case probably did not know what deals were possibly being made about them, and planned and carried out their escape all by themselves. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, this film is a bit disturbing not only in that it avoids telling most of the back story. </div><div><br /></div><div>The crew of seven is reduced to five and given different names in the film - in which process the Tatar names of some of the crew members are changed into more Slavonic-sounding names: second pilot Gazinur Hairullin (played by the handsome Vladimir Mashkov) becomes "Seryoga", and flight engineer Askhat Abbyazov (played by bright-eyed Bogdan Benyuk) gets the Ukrainian name Vakulenko. The Aerostan plane, which originally had decals with the Tatarstan flag, gets "RusTransAviaExport" decals with Russian flags. And when religion comes up, the crew members are either practising Christians (Abbyazov/Vakulenko is one of them) or don't care - none of them shows any signs of a Muslim background.</div><div><br />The real story might have been much more about international arms dealing and the political situation in the mid-1990's. But in <a href="http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?story_id=30782&action_id=2">a St. Petersburg Times interview</a>, director Andrei Kavun said: “My film is about the fact that it is possible to love your country, regardless of its attitude toward you.” Indeed, it focuses (tries to, at least) on the individual crew members and how they react to their imprisonment and the seeming indifference towards them from Russia. The tone is set in the beginning, when Seryoga escapes from the Turkish police (in the film the plane takes off from Istanbul, not Tirana) after engaging in shady dealings on the beach, and his partner shouts: "We Russians don't abandon our people!" Basically the message is about "individual patrotism", solidarity with your countrymen in spite of how much your nation might screw you over. </div><div><br /></div><div>In <a href="http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/121003-andrei-kavun-talks-about-his-film-kandahar-and-lessons-nato-could-le/">an interview for the Los Angeles Times</a>, Kavun explains further:<br /><blockquote><i>"My main moral thread was not about Afghanistan, but about contemporary Russia. In the Great Patriotic War, we were all Russians whether we were Jews, Chechens, Tatars, Georgians, Ukrainians, Russians or others. When Nazis captured a Soviet soldier who was a Chechen, they called him a Russian and they killed him as a Russian.<br />Now we have grown very particular about our ethnic, confessional and other differences to the point that we can no longer exist next to each other. My movie is about five different people who are caught up in a tragic situation which aggravates their differences. Each one thinks that he is right and each one has a right to his truth. But only when they put their differences aside do they manage to survive together and make a heroic escape. It is about coming to terms with each other, making allowances and compromises."</i></blockquote></div>So why did he have to erase the Tatar elements in the story? Is Kavun talking about a "Russianness" where ethnic minorities can easily find their culture "assimilated to death", while the majorities might have problems realising that their culture is actually not the norm for everyone who calls themselves Russian?</div><div>Another explanation could be that this film was made in 2010. After all, while the Tatar elements have been removed, there is plenty of anti-Islamism. Most of the Afghans are portrayed as idiots, emotional, aggressive, fanatical, uncultured, and easily diverted with games and bribed with watches and jewelry.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enough rambling, and on to the screencaps!</div><div>Click to enlarge:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_n8xGPJIir-2sEBWsWgh2XLoviV3lBx1BnTjP3JEhViYu1xcvR8ajW_Unl_L63z_B_-1fXWXdqmSUsqDis2dsWEStyquZTRI-2DxIf__TK5jmyzfxbqK-69iK_dOH3LLcULKFRjyImTgZ/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h18m54s254.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_n8xGPJIir-2sEBWsWgh2XLoviV3lBx1BnTjP3JEhViYu1xcvR8ajW_Unl_L63z_B_-1fXWXdqmSUsqDis2dsWEStyquZTRI-2DxIf__TK5jmyzfxbqK-69iK_dOH3LLcULKFRjyImTgZ/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h18m54s254.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469980231629739410" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Turkish policemen</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGNwXNFY-WY2yGKWE9RTryj0zzbeYbgdquBfnBtpP7GpsMilggj8VkFz-jTsj6KafgWEB2tJ4Y5cBbkFP4Dj0jQgHtSJEnejZj-rkaySwm5Pm2fZwp93dT8Cwjrduj0qGJornQlQGWNlF/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h21m37s99.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGNwXNFY-WY2yGKWE9RTryj0zzbeYbgdquBfnBtpP7GpsMilggj8VkFz-jTsj6KafgWEB2tJ4Y5cBbkFP4Dj0jQgHtSJEnejZj-rkaySwm5Pm2fZwp93dT8Cwjrduj0qGJornQlQGWNlF/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h21m37s99.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469980310518964802" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>The crew of the Il-76</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzr0OGmUB2R1gTNWPHOrsEl8YFaPSnKc61fsOJ2PYHGUxDDRFjfa-8iGIrnUggqrHLZ5w9OmGGjDpSbhv4I2cpgNM3-FbRYYeoa4cRcloFHCRUfwzOK5IuQ6RjlOOw5O4ZfC33FzG7J1Q/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h24m56s64.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEzr0OGmUB2R1gTNWPHOrsEl8YFaPSnKc61fsOJ2PYHGUxDDRFjfa-8iGIrnUggqrHLZ5w9OmGGjDpSbhv4I2cpgNM3-FbRYYeoa4cRcloFHCRUfwzOK5IuQ6RjlOOw5O4ZfC33FzG7J1Q/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h24m56s64.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469980860385437250" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Commotion as the plane lands in Kandahar. The film was shot in Morocco, and I seriously doubt they bothered to fly in Afghan people to play any of the Afghan roles. But in any case, there are lots of handsome men in the crowds of stereotypically "angry and violent Orientals" ...</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q9Z6UONP8x6Vddhx3w9baXQCVoJovUM8oRX6FKaEmPPRxp1k6xO18-W04mvry-6S1V7kdfZ1z3MyCWhDeE-rKqkrSr12SUiAQwSwoSp9gpDhyxpgHw16HSFCpkP6zp-BIrwoc_HRpyYI/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h25m12s222.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Q9Z6UONP8x6Vddhx3w9baXQCVoJovUM8oRX6FKaEmPPRxp1k6xO18-W04mvry-6S1V7kdfZ1z3MyCWhDeE-rKqkrSr12SUiAQwSwoSp9gpDhyxpgHw16HSFCpkP6zp-BIrwoc_HRpyYI/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h25m12s222.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469980932879658930" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TNYW3ICUBvBpg1qAybJ128VRDEZZOTWShzrQa_mo9WD3YEeSr6xOqsPiAxH4pBg82VIOZX1kR_T6eiRmOTROw7VZos0cHSDexebYxh2VjBoNV4fLLTOi3y_dUt1DTOcu0TBd0y-1qc53/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h25m36s199.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TNYW3ICUBvBpg1qAybJ128VRDEZZOTWShzrQa_mo9WD3YEeSr6xOqsPiAxH4pBg82VIOZX1kR_T6eiRmOTROw7VZos0cHSDexebYxh2VjBoNV4fLLTOi3y_dUt1DTOcu0TBd0y-1qc53/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h25m36s199.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981018300991538" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnW9YHGF5QvD4MS_ipCjxDp9JtQbPTJQtxfdMHIOh1jNi3aY0KUBoJWxwwXUgsw3THM4I-M970ihQ0SeUNiZHJ-GUsXvHp43Wy9sxfeXl02BD2lhdL_kO3WwdLKsOwgVHQrBeaus1q1n1m/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h27m27s9.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnW9YHGF5QvD4MS_ipCjxDp9JtQbPTJQtxfdMHIOh1jNi3aY0KUBoJWxwwXUgsw3THM4I-M970ihQ0SeUNiZHJ-GUsXvHp43Wy9sxfeXl02BD2lhdL_kO3WwdLKsOwgVHQrBeaus1q1n1m/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h27m27s9.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981386083936386" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfy6OYMOCKrmF05N-FJDRaDElaG7z6Ep3yc9FtAqG57gEMktOL1K00terHYWQtfMNd6RDm8bZH4hyphenhyphenKgw8G1295x1fGk74Ox8sIUZ3clnqEeaOHz7tTgIl4HhgHSygb54_rz-m-ki-To_M/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h28m47s45.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfy6OYMOCKrmF05N-FJDRaDElaG7z6Ep3yc9FtAqG57gEMktOL1K00terHYWQtfMNd6RDm8bZH4hyphenhyphenKgw8G1295x1fGk74Ox8sIUZ3clnqEeaOHz7tTgIl4HhgHSygb54_rz-m-ki-To_M/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h28m47s45.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981394602719362" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>The interpreter - "Misha", as he calls himself. Played by Imomberdy Mingbaev (his name sounds Tajik).</div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXb-GvrGyp-w5hG3lhB0P_-NG3JSww9jhuzC7eWn1n6OGNOh_aAZ7YOwd_ueFlmERBTffbM4qgME0TigQWp-Ne2Zk1-qf6x72-W03BRj93NXuZ0XTyQQQnG01i4xcJ6MKSV4lNUdYeDmj/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-14h41m22s182.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXb-GvrGyp-w5hG3lhB0P_-NG3JSww9jhuzC7eWn1n6OGNOh_aAZ7YOwd_ueFlmERBTffbM4qgME0TigQWp-Ne2Zk1-qf6x72-W03BRj93NXuZ0XTyQQQnG01i4xcJ6MKSV4lNUdYeDmj/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-14h41m22s182.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469992596235889954" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Adil, the Russian-speaking MiG-21 pilot, is played by the Tatar Ramil Sabitov: yet another role in his long career of "swarthy bandits" ... And particularly ironic in this film, where some of the "heroes" in real life were Tatars like him.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0jgJMDnpjXO9QuF8FQ7thwVEkGUyMPtWfAhUVINtxdlIO1HwEgzdCpUR_gs2Mf2vPly_9BnmeLh6gtUBgTkpnaaD6xDdjI5GuOyn5N-fiNi2DCgR-YpQqIA9O-Lvay7bSnfc5VCt42Dc/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-14h43m24s131.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY0jgJMDnpjXO9QuF8FQ7thwVEkGUyMPtWfAhUVINtxdlIO1HwEgzdCpUR_gs2Mf2vPly_9BnmeLh6gtUBgTkpnaaD6xDdjI5GuOyn5N-fiNi2DCgR-YpQqIA9O-Lvay7bSnfc5VCt42Dc/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-14h43m24s131.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469992601557680578" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Sabitov has a large fanbase of people who appreciate his manliness.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-HX88vtwaCK_S9bzMOUWDADmh-VYfJYcQNMqF78HQHY5NGyaPuhDZHmGnhKAAbIn7xd3sJe-ofrvnFDpmpgZ6kyQnKIuH3XJ1BT-Y6r4PdJSR9mN6koR8BHcwq5NrO2z3oyKAdgfIGLW/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h30m02s18.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-HX88vtwaCK_S9bzMOUWDADmh-VYfJYcQNMqF78HQHY5NGyaPuhDZHmGnhKAAbIn7xd3sJe-ofrvnFDpmpgZ6kyQnKIuH3XJ1BT-Y6r4PdJSR9mN6koR8BHcwq5NrO2z3oyKAdgfIGLW/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h30m02s18.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981396689230610" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>More handsome extras.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IGuK92GqMVKvSO130xTwPYPbTt5GFeggOJiF9V5pWbs6U1QqBiYNmTAOGeCXMSjKX3NJVklI_4czGsGxlD9Grd56Ak4Aww14h7DBs3Wt9fNJseoWJcGY_0TM7OiiLZngikZixZW3corE/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h33m24s10.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IGuK92GqMVKvSO130xTwPYPbTt5GFeggOJiF9V5pWbs6U1QqBiYNmTAOGeCXMSjKX3NJVklI_4czGsGxlD9Grd56Ak4Aww14h7DBs3Wt9fNJseoWJcGY_0TM7OiiLZngikZixZW3corE/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h33m24s10.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981404402645938" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Some of the guards.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbNrx_eKjKmUjsCdmcbv7FdMOD-3t-Y_0huJdSt1Cxsuz973qh5EDlf7thWholhodTq1sI4mgMTPmRCXz_h3bGVi2f550W9tR2KMiRT6GjX_PcaT56uiUIIHuEtPkF7wKiCV54JqQqV1s/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h37m48s93.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjbNrx_eKjKmUjsCdmcbv7FdMOD-3t-Y_0huJdSt1Cxsuz973qh5EDlf7thWholhodTq1sI4mgMTPmRCXz_h3bGVi2f550W9tR2KMiRT6GjX_PcaT56uiUIIHuEtPkF7wKiCV54JqQqV1s/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h37m48s93.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469981411228265058" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Vityek tries to get on the guards' good side by gambling with them (!).</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUuwv9qa1N60VOxDoASKbzyylDiGclRid7bIz5DtyVWx_YPxm8AmAhmV48e_4KAG1ZO1jV86vaBi9fjmagV2L_LTaLiFiV2nTFG9-gPcyM_mObLUgsWXhqsKZDvVvcYyKyJIxjyVK-JBDt/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h38m49s169.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUuwv9qa1N60VOxDoASKbzyylDiGclRid7bIz5DtyVWx_YPxm8AmAhmV48e_4KAG1ZO1jV86vaBi9fjmagV2L_LTaLiFiV2nTFG9-gPcyM_mObLUgsWXhqsKZDvVvcYyKyJIxjyVK-JBDt/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h38m49s169.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982021389352962" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Then he speaks to Misha about converting to Islam and joining the Taliban, and the possible benefits he would get from it. When the other crew members find out they kick his ass.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB1KCwNCEmXR1cqgIrUYsnSxdYZqvXg1XWtw7aa0QMohBBvLaVRmyNx9KQ-iAt4AoX_EK1TVo7nVdcIvRHY_D3rnGf9wZ71BZ5357MjMQpCn3i-i77AAxRIAayc0ZVKdCj6oL20AoIEfF/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h40m57s190.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeB1KCwNCEmXR1cqgIrUYsnSxdYZqvXg1XWtw7aa0QMohBBvLaVRmyNx9KQ-iAt4AoX_EK1TVo7nVdcIvRHY_D3rnGf9wZ71BZ5357MjMQpCn3i-i77AAxRIAayc0ZVKdCj6oL20AoIEfF/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h40m57s190.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982023796155186" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>The pilot is forced to teach the Taliban how to fly the Ilyushin. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7nEkUOpgIS6OMXGOI7hsQIDuK6vEo-wUvteHexDhDmL9n_GF3GlqR9-9GhVrCeX2M9c-3AGNt2cazljHHlcG1PQd4XvYG0YqVse_jK9yscUccw0I4nmYwhCjU8IKk0Y7dKeD9wgnVeiM/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h41m20s164.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl7nEkUOpgIS6OMXGOI7hsQIDuK6vEo-wUvteHexDhDmL9n_GF3GlqR9-9GhVrCeX2M9c-3AGNt2cazljHHlcG1PQd4XvYG0YqVse_jK9yscUccw0I4nmYwhCjU8IKk0Y7dKeD9wgnVeiM/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h41m20s164.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982035669235298" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyOKd82C7dZYwGZwx9Fa8T1tbm5kx706XH4Y7-98ncrv7COYQ3ZByuiu2xfYsuVQ4FID_NdsteKfQvNpshSwb5l4_MXn8bQJhONz21nxB6YDOjhJwptCg3nAWw6V-1RIh9eEJU4orTWMY/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h43m43s66.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyOKd82C7dZYwGZwx9Fa8T1tbm5kx706XH4Y7-98ncrv7COYQ3ZByuiu2xfYsuVQ4FID_NdsteKfQvNpshSwb5l4_MXn8bQJhONz21nxB6YDOjhJwptCg3nAWw6V-1RIh9eEJU4orTWMY/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h43m43s66.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982039689336178" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>The youngest of the guards.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMBv93N87hlUxJwNzLw7neDwJlcFolCXnpifDojf_sQjoaN00oTRM4S46OuqLM7Xjwd6i_cFimqJtTfwjZSJoNj6-Rnp4NZ6KJru8GwTSjXFGosbu0Oa8bp3G7e4-frBYEK4aLX0aRi98/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h44m02s253.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMBv93N87hlUxJwNzLw7neDwJlcFolCXnpifDojf_sQjoaN00oTRM4S46OuqLM7Xjwd6i_cFimqJtTfwjZSJoNj6-Rnp4NZ6KJru8GwTSjXFGosbu0Oa8bp3G7e4-frBYEK4aLX0aRi98/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h44m02s253.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982047854808402" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWs-ssiMHsl_Fvj3k343zOmRMNgNy56IhT57oNUXu2bXsQfkvrGIAzckkIccVrI5YPGjOHIPg5nffjBqtLaA3CJhIBvN3vwGmq9JhodIRHsEYnveSFlNoNTjo64bMLMbqQP2pOWaY3H8x/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h45m07s142.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWs-ssiMHsl_Fvj3k343zOmRMNgNy56IhT57oNUXu2bXsQfkvrGIAzckkIccVrI5YPGjOHIPg5nffjBqtLaA3CJhIBvN3vwGmq9JhodIRHsEYnveSFlNoNTjo64bMLMbqQP2pOWaY3H8x/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h45m07s142.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470036170355711954" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Seryoga</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKCQLSk-zQfjgKD-3QAYOZV3zCSVe8037IhJOcqiflPIs1BDMPSevGndxglR0cMp8VNR8Lc4RiPMjObOgD9tcqOIHC-jKZw715FoNzMFgmJWC8dvEEr2PI6GIsu6LSNH4iiH6pQQJETNu/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h47m44s164.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKCQLSk-zQfjgKD-3QAYOZV3zCSVe8037IhJOcqiflPIs1BDMPSevGndxglR0cMp8VNR8Lc4RiPMjObOgD9tcqOIHC-jKZw715FoNzMFgmJWC8dvEEr2PI6GIsu6LSNH4iiH6pQQJETNu/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h47m44s164.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982339669602738" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Doing "maintenance" on the plane ... </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxapr532CbSViJnPa5emxfWXeLrZPWmzDs2xD0PMhk_H8WDzDaQ7-hQXDPSX8trJoH0SgpKzlTA5TDvpc-H1aGl2WQm3QR7Yug1J94y1lcq6LKqtFG__3BLt_Zwraw9KHkNbramJf6S9MV/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h48m29s101.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxapr532CbSViJnPa5emxfWXeLrZPWmzDs2xD0PMhk_H8WDzDaQ7-hQXDPSX8trJoH0SgpKzlTA5TDvpc-H1aGl2WQm3QR7Yug1J94y1lcq6LKqtFG__3BLt_Zwraw9KHkNbramJf6S9MV/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h48m29s101.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982341494670210" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>Vityek convinces this cute guy to let him ride his bicycle, so he can maybe ride way out along the air strip and check out the anti-aircraft gun positioned there.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7pYZO98Yt2RjeyBt5ZzO-C4mnoSh3sAaN0g7WI6Zy6C920wCSx1_-pTI2W485Yoi31EuWcxVjSftk9Q6aOuPFwOzopzaL6skGrLBzD5CG7bITxmaRRw-5hxMeSeXQKDde6gL-LHZf-9k/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h50m08s58.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7pYZO98Yt2RjeyBt5ZzO-C4mnoSh3sAaN0g7WI6Zy6C920wCSx1_-pTI2W485Yoi31EuWcxVjSftk9Q6aOuPFwOzopzaL6skGrLBzD5CG7bITxmaRRw-5hxMeSeXQKDde6gL-LHZf-9k/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h50m08s58.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982349242454850" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div>It's Friday, and most of the guys guarding them have gone off to do their prayers. Now is the chance ...</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXGKNskbkWiJxQVqZ2Sp5xuWitrGuYx2O9HbXQv7E5IMt6YLobh4RXbHZ_tkrvwFZZS9FIhuDzT9xoSV75PRd9U-hLU-D5SaJntYo4MAYFDVpaUF37UJD8jqy3-xrKXQHo5VYn8fD0oDV3/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h52m01s176.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXGKNskbkWiJxQVqZ2Sp5xuWitrGuYx2O9HbXQv7E5IMt6YLobh4RXbHZ_tkrvwFZZS9FIhuDzT9xoSV75PRd9U-hLU-D5SaJntYo4MAYFDVpaUF37UJD8jqy3-xrKXQHo5VYn8fD0oDV3/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h52m01s176.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982355367368626" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrLz1b2MdTcnZYlBrlaTrVJuBWDfsIpJ7xu3UR7l3Vuu4ADHdM2xvDFhomVhiWQ8WVWoSp9lCV3A7EQlQugBQqWzGqUWZgkyT4z2SSeKRwUUfE9krLcScA62748u911VQASnWWSjW73f11/s1600/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h53m02s19.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrLz1b2MdTcnZYlBrlaTrVJuBWDfsIpJ7xu3UR7l3Vuu4ADHdM2xvDFhomVhiWQ8WVWoSp9lCV3A7EQlQugBQqWzGqUWZgkyT4z2SSeKRwUUfE9krLcScA62748u911VQASnWWSjW73f11/s400/vlcsnap-2010-05-11-09h53m02s19.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469982363579169922" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And for comparison, here are some authentic photos, taken by a Russian doctor who was with a team who was allowed to visit the hostages - again, click to enlarge: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHGcuo2PbXn3KjJsM96SO_2nBDWNXjv7QosqBwuyo3cWP-xHdUWDl2OKdc4zX3hHs9qL0Xr-_SqM2_Ag7f8MOVjiY5p7brExJMQG9GwPmzXYs8ITHZLomSaVvljAgsUzfcH3TMIAUtxD5/s1600/4.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipHGcuo2PbXn3KjJsM96SO_2nBDWNXjv7QosqBwuyo3cWP-xHdUWDl2OKdc4zX3hHs9qL0Xr-_SqM2_Ag7f8MOVjiY5p7brExJMQG9GwPmzXYs8ITHZLomSaVvljAgsUzfcH3TMIAUtxD5/s400/4.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469996069448045362" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 272px; " /></a></div><div>The MiG-21 pilot in front of the Aerostan Ilyushin</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2dRqIznGT4S72ntF7hQsawueFJVViEaGnq8vuXTx_fH59GMLaBoRGhNEINfLj0VfnTKzNCBK4bfHHxgkGY2jro-wmsrm_0BMDBfarg_0LtWnxuLbjBxfRpg67-ZmyRAoJUoRCm7uNanW/s1600/15.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd2dRqIznGT4S72ntF7hQsawueFJVViEaGnq8vuXTx_fH59GMLaBoRGhNEINfLj0VfnTKzNCBK4bfHHxgkGY2jro-wmsrm_0BMDBfarg_0LtWnxuLbjBxfRpg67-ZmyRAoJUoRCm7uNanW/s400/15.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469996082837622018" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>Crew members eating</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnFMH8mnBqN38a75ensUwOjQCH2nWaUCbLy8A3IC4Q73-xfYtyXaL56XgeoFbBExtmv3fWz0t3seaz9vKiMGjk6zJn8L8zgaedscJrwQLa5S1Kq_tm0xygoZjxhUY1EpS7AXq7TpCDcFa/s1600/11.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHnFMH8mnBqN38a75ensUwOjQCH2nWaUCbLy8A3IC4Q73-xfYtyXaL56XgeoFbBExtmv3fWz0t3seaz9vKiMGjk6zJn8L8zgaedscJrwQLa5S1Kq_tm0xygoZjxhUY1EpS7AXq7TpCDcFa/s400/11.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469996073197200674" style="cursor: pointer; width: 311px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>One of them is clearly sporting a "Tatarfro" ...</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiezxo5nYBEJRSCkwM-Rd2662lb72DVsuxmAgRrd1JGX9fpx3LDEkq6LcVFvTriY2OYuxCmywj5x1ZVTk6JDm6axv3qSrvY4EHFyjj9F2Ze4BdbBMV53HLNCxuYXOcqxSpEJA5n2jlkOMB/s1600/12.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiezxo5nYBEJRSCkwM-Rd2662lb72DVsuxmAgRrd1JGX9fpx3LDEkq6LcVFvTriY2OYuxCmywj5x1ZVTk6JDm6axv3qSrvY4EHFyjj9F2Ze4BdbBMV53HLNCxuYXOcqxSpEJA5n2jlkOMB/s400/12.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469996076183009314" style="cursor: pointer; width: 315px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>The doctors also treated some locals while they were in Kandahar.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WH3eIuAxo3p3KAn05JczEYdLEu09ZZCXKFPiDjHqIPwKqn05bNkIqwlw6U-y5FBL5t8HgoNQoKIHf1LFJYgn7YFNTyfgxGEDezSZu3G-qEgdLPigHmA1qK9EwpbIdRJ02-3BD4oupcku/s1600/16.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WH3eIuAxo3p3KAn05JczEYdLEu09ZZCXKFPiDjHqIPwKqn05bNkIqwlw6U-y5FBL5t8HgoNQoKIHf1LFJYgn7YFNTyfgxGEDezSZu3G-qEgdLPigHmA1qK9EwpbIdRJ02-3BD4oupcku/s400/16.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469996086747170706" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 260px; " /></a><br />Street scene<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are more authentic photos at <a href="http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/02/19/kandahar-captives/">EnglishRussia</a>.</div><div>.</div>Tinethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442329710467703684noreply@blogger.com3