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Maud started out as a photographer as well, but then she turned to documentaries. She received multiple awards for her works, including “Best Documentary” in 2007 at Prix Italia for her film about a young nun called “The Nun”. The Latvian premiere of “Road’s End” (shot in 2013) was attended by Daina and her son who returned from Norway to Latvia, helped his mother move to a new house with much better comforts and now undertook a lot of the house chores, so chopping wood in the winter is no longer a problem for Daina. Inta Ruka told the audience about it at the premiere and the whole affair had a real happy end. In the wake of the general uplifting mood after the premiere the audience didn’t disperse for about an hour. We stole Maud Nycander for a small interview straight from the premiere, took her to one of the halls at the Splendid Palace, sat down on a couch and turned on the dictaphone. |
Why did you decide to make this film? Do you think that the Latvian “wilderness” is something special, something that can interest the Swedish audience? |
First I made a film about Inta Ruka, and during the filming process she introduced me to Daina. And Inta already knew Daina for 35 years and started taking photos of her a long time ago. I filmed Inta when we went to visit Daina, and I was really impressed by her. How she dealt with life in the forest and how she manages without electricity, without modern sewage and so on. And when I returned to Sweden, I continued to think about her for the whole winter, how she was doing when the outside temperature was -20°С. When I returned to Latvia, we decided to visit Daina, to see how she was getting on. I asked her what she did in the evenings when it got dark, without TV and other things like that. And she said a wonderful thing: “I reminisce about the past”. |
Here and onwards: film stills from “Road’s End” |
And I thought, that is exactly what many generations before us did in the winter evenings, they reminisced about the past. For me meeting Daina was a type of time travel, I could become acquainted with how my great-grandfather and great-grandmother lived, as they were also farmers. All Swedes come from peasant families in one way or another. In my generation most people’s grandparents were precisely that. |
I think that was the initial push. And then... every person has their own history, their own stories in the general chorus. And this is a story about a very strong woman who happened to live a difficult life. She needed to find solutions to numerous problems that she encountered. This was also a story about family, about love, about the relationships between generations. |
What role do Inta Ruka’s photographs play in the film? |
I think that the film wouldn’t be able to exist without Inta’s photographs. Thanks to them we can shift in time of Daina’s plot line. For example, we can see her in the times when she was a young mother with two small children. She was young, beautiful, even now she has a fantastic and very charismatic face. So the time passes, the children grow, Daina also experiences some changes. The photographs add an existentialist level to the film. If we only showed Daina from today, it would have been a more flat film. |
How did you meet Inta and why did you decide to make a film about her? |
I had an exhibition at the Latvian Museum of Photography sometime in 1995, that’s when I first met Inta in Riga and we became acquainted. Then we ran into each other in Stockholm and became friends. I also did photography at the time, it was only afterward that I started making films. And that’s when I got the idea to make a film about Inta. |
It seems to me that you are interested in strong female characters. You also had a film about a young nun, called “The Nun”. |
All those three women are very interesting. They make decisions which change their destiny. But on the other hand, some things happen to disrupt their plans. Of course I also filmed other stories, not just about those women, but I think you are partially correct. It was not easy for a woman especially in the past to stand out from the crowd and control her own destiny. |
Is there something similar between the life of a nun and the life of a lonely woman in a forest? |
My heroine is a nun that lives in the monastery of the Carmelite order in Sweden which practices monastic silence. During the day they can only talk for 40 minutes after breakfast and for 40 minutes after dinner. This is ultimately a very short time. During the rest of the time everybody is silent. Therefore you have to spend the majority of the time with yourself and your internal world. And this is similar to how Daina lives, as she spends most of the time with herself. |
Daina fit into the film very naturally. And at the Riga premiere she also acted very dignified and it seems that she wasn’t even nervous. |
The way she speaks is beautifully structured and full of imagery, and she has a great sense of humor. Can you imagine, she named her dog (who is huge and loves her owner) George Bush! You might think that she lives so far away from civilization and doesn’t know what is going on in the world. On the contrary! I think for me it would be unreal to stay there in the winter with just the animals. I think I would go insane. Daina is very strong. She has to feed the animals, she has to make food for herself, she has to stoke the fire which is not a simple task. And she had a chance to move to a different house with electricity and television, but she didn’t want to do it until her old house pretty much crumbled down completely. |
The film is about the choices we make in life. And about the place where you live and how it grows into you. Young people don’t think much about it, but old people contemplate this more. The place where Daina lives is near Balvi, it has a lot of mosquitoes in the summer, there is a dense forest, there are no high hills, fantastic lakes or beautiful rivers. But Daina likes this place because her memories are connected to it, because this is the land that she devoted her labor to. And that is very humane. |
What do you think about Inta Ruka’s photographs? Why are they so popular, what do people find in them? |
Inta is a unique talent of communicating with people and forming relationships with them. She is so interested in the people that she meets. She is also from those places, she used to live there every summer, her mother was born there. She spends so much time just talking to the local people, and she really does like doing it. In general, I am talking about the talent of forming relationships with people, the talent of building bridges. |
And she has an incredible “eye”, the photo-vision. Everything together is an amazing combination. In Sweden we have a photographer Sune Jonsson who was very important for our country, because he documented such things and such ways of life that don’t exist any more in our time. And this is somewhat similar to what Inta is going in Latvia. |
Maud Nycander. Publicity photo |
Q: I just received my US permanent resident card (“green card”) in the mail from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). I was thinking of putting it in a safe deposit box at my bank to make sure I don’t lose it. Is this a good idea? |
A: Actually, the law requires that you keep your original green card with you at all times. So you should not store it in a safe deposit box or at home. Instead you should make a clear, legible color photocopy of the front and back of the green card and store that in a safe place in case the original ever is lost or stolen. Permanent residents should likewise keep the original of their home-country passport in a safe place when not traveling. The same goes for US passports for US citizens. When traveling, everyone should make a photocopy of passports and other necessary immigration-related documents and take them on the trip along with the originals (but packed in a separate place). Copies also should be left with your emergency contact person in the United States. This will make replacement easier if the documents are lost or stolen. |
We often receive inquiries about what to do with other documents from USCIS and other authorities. Here is a summary: |
People who are not US citizens or permanent US residents should store the original of their passport in a secure place such as a hotel safe or bank safe deposit box. They should make copies of the pages of their passports showing their photograph and identity data, the page with the US entry stamp, and any current visa; thus, they would have evidence of their immigration status if they are required to show it to US immigration authorities. In cases where someone needs to present the original of a passport, such as in cashing traveler’s checks, great care should be taken not to lose the document. |
Permanent residents and others, including naturalized citizens, should retain copies of each and every document ever sent to or received from immigration authorities. Even for cases that are closed, it is always possible that a situation will arise in the future that requires that a copy of a document be produced (when a naturalized US citizen is petitioning for permanent residence for a relative, for example). These records should be kept wherever other important family documents – birth and marriage certificates, insurance policies, deeds, mortgages, tax records, etc. – are kept. A bank safe deposit box is the best place; a fireproof safe at home would be the next best. |
Some of our clients have indicated that they carry their Social Security cards with them. That is not a good idea. You should never carry the card, or any other piece of paper showing your Social Security number, on your person. If your wallet or purse is stolen, a thief could use the number to commit identity theft. The same goes for items such as bank account PIN numbers or any other passwords. (Be careful, by the way, of giving out such information unless you are absolutely sure of the identity of the person requesting it and the legitimate reason for doing so. For example, never give it to anyone who calls you on the telephone, no matter what government agency, bank, etc. they may claim to represent.) |
With regard to USCIS documents establishing your immigration status, it is not just inconvenient if you should lose them. There are substantial fees and long waiting periods for applications to replace lost green cards, work authorization documents, and so on. So guard the originals carefully. |
If you have questions about your documents or any other immigration issue, visit one of our legal clinics advertised weekly in the Emigrant for a free, confidential consultation. |
2005 - Wallpaper removal & installation in a Biedermeier cabinet. |
A Little history of Biedermeier: |
The style known today as Biedermeier was popular in the early 19th century throughout most of Northern Europe, particularly in Germany. Officially, Biedermeier was only produced between 1810 and 1835. Revival periods include 1860, late 19th Century and again in the 1920s. Most of the furniture from that era remain anonymous and dateless, in character with the modest craftsmen who created the style. But the impact of its unfussy style and clean lines is still felt today. |
Many assume that Biedermeier is the name of a celebrated cabinetmaker of the time, but the name is more commonly attributed to a satirical cartoon popular in early 19th century Europe. |
Biedermeier decoration and furniture can be recognized by its key factors - clarity, proportion and restraint. |
Decorative materials were marble and sandstone used for ornamentation. The dominating colours for the style were clair bois (pale wood) and black ebony inlay. |
Article supplied by: |
Karl Kemp and Associates Antiques & Interiordezine.com |
Episodes Previews |
Bear Goes Wild With Barack Obama (Channel 4 20 Dec 2015) |
AIRDATE: Sunday 20 December 2015 at 9.00pm on Channel 4 |
In a historic and unprecedented special episode, Bear Goes Wild with Barack Obama, Bear Grylls takes President Barack Obama on an adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. |
Viewers will see a side of the Commander in Chief that they’ve never seen before as Bear and President Obama journey across a glacial outwash and through a dense forest on their way to Alaska’s famed Exit Glacier, where they see the effects of climate change first-hand. Bear gives the President a true taste of the Alaskan wilderness, as we see the two men cooking bear-gnawed, half-eaten salmon and chatting around their campfire. From family, fears and faith, to the overwhelming duties as Commander in Chief – and even Bear’s penchant for drinking his own urine – no subject is off limits. |
During the episode, they encounter bear fur in the Alaskan forests and climb trees for berries before reaching the snout of the glacier itself to witness the effects of climate change. This special episode is an inspiring, heart-warming and insightful journey, the like of which viewers will never have seen before: the US President and the UK’s very own adventurer Bear Grylls on a first-of-its-kind TV adventure, which is only part of what makes this special episode so remarkable. That the President made contact with the adventurer to ask him to explore the Alaskan wilderness together makes this all the more extraordinary. |
Other posts featuring the following |
The Fourth Reich |
Well is it coming again? |
Angela Merkel’s Germany has begun to polarize Europe. |
“Under the glass Reichstag dome in Germany’s parliament last week, left-wing opposition leader Gregor Gysi lit into Chancellor Angela Merkel for saddling Greece with a staggering unemployment rate, devastating wage cuts, and “soup kitchens upon soup kitchens.” |
The chancellor, sitting a few steps away with a blank expression on her face, scrolled through her smartphone. |
Ms. Merkel’s power after a decade in office has become seemingly untouchable, both within Germany and across Europe. But with the “no” vote in Sunday’s Greek referendum on bailout terms posing the biggest challenge yet to decades of European integration, risks to the European project resulting from Germany’s rise as the Continent’s most powerful country are becoming clear.” |
So said today’s Wall Street Journal. |
Spanish anti-austerity leader Pablo Iglesias said on Friday “We don’t want to be a German colony!”. Italian populist Beppe Grillo said, “Now Merkel and bankers will have food for thought.” On Monday, Ms. Merkel flew to Paris for crisis talks amid signs the French government was resisting Berlin’s hard line on Greece. |
Despite a small military and an inward looking public Germany appears to have greater influence on European and world affairs than at any time since World War II. |
“With every crisis in which Chancellor Merkel acts as the Continent’s go-to problem solver, the message to many other Europeans is that for all the lip service about the common “European project,” it is the Germans and faceless bureaucrats in Brussels who run the show.” |
The push back against Germany is likely to grow stronger if the euro-zone crisis worsens and as Germany’s policies grow more assertive. Last week the face of the stern German Finance Minister appeared on posters in Athens urging a “no” vote – “He’s been sucking your blood for five years! Vote No!”. |
“They want to humiliate Greece to send a warning to Spain, Portugal and Italy,” Hilario Montero, a pensioner at a pro-Greece demonstration in Madrid recently, said of Berlin and Brussels. “The message is you are not allowed to cross the lines they set.” |
Greece presents the most direct test for Merkel’s Europe. Her government played the biggest role in shaping the austerity-and-reform conditions for euro zone bailouts and was the most influential voice resisting debt relief for Greece. |
“Last September, then-Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras flew to Berlin and appealed to Ms. Merkel. Unpopular economic measures required of Greece under bailout terms —including changes to pensions and taxation as well as the rules involving labor, banks and the public payroll—were feeding the rise of a radical left-wing movement, Syriza, he said. |
Merkel held firm and pushed back against offering debt relief. German officials advised the Greeks to tackle tough reforms right away. |
Mr. Samaras, amid rising Greek anger over economically stifling austerity measures, lost the election to Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras in January. As the crisis intensified under the new government’s tougher negotiating style, German influence grew even more unmistakable.” |
Grumblings in the E.U over Merkels clash with Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine crisis has strained relations within Europe as countries, from Italy to Hungary have chafed at having to put their close ties to Russia on ice amid Merkel’s push for sanctions. |
On the EU’s eastern periphery, Germany’s leadership on Ukraine stirred discomfort in Poland and the Baltic states. Poland felt it needed more NATO troops on it’s soil for security. Germany, after ensuring that every E.U. member, including Poland, voted for sanctions, was opposed to further antagonizing Russia and left the Poles hanging out to dry. A Polish official accused Merkel of “toying with Poland’s very existence again” |
The Greek crisis and it’s potential exit from both the Euro zone and the E.U. will lead to greater resistance against increasing German hegemony in Europe. |
Claudia Major, a security specialist at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said: “If Greece were to leave the eurozone, this may someday be seen as the beginning of the end of the project of European integration—when the Germans were not in the position, as the leading power in shaping Europe, to be able to resolve things with the Greeks.” |
About toritto |
5 Responses to The Fourth Reich |
1. beetleypete says: |
What it could not achieve militarily, Germany seeks to achieve financially. Spot-on, Frank. |
Best wishes, Pete. |
2. I, for one, would be very pleased to see the EU break up. The same arguments used to promote the EU have been used to promote the WTO and other “free trade” treaties. In theory, all these accords were supposed to bolster economic growth and living standards. In reality they have transferred immense power to multinational corporations and undermined democratic institutions. The most democratic systems are small and regionally based because they allow true democratic input from the governed populations. |
3. sojourner says: |
And no doubt it is the Zionist run banking cartel, in the US and Europe, behind this, just as they were in the early 1930s! |
4. Dr. Bramhall is right. Corporate ideology leads to larger, more efficient and less democratic – whether it’s society or corporations. Capitalists treat the two as if they are the same. They will privatize and profit on anything they can get their dirty hands on and always at the detriment of civilization. |
They’ve perfected the art of war to include economic theory. |
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sweet pink valentine's day treats! |
ell, now that the Superbowl is over, all the grocery stores have changed over their merchandising to Valentine's day goodies! Pink flowers and chocolate everywhere! Valentine's Day has never been my most favorite holiday, but as I get older I enjoy taking any excuse to celebrate! I don't have any plans for Valentine's day this year, but whatever we do it'll probably be a homegrown festivity. Growing up I loathed pink. I wouldn't touch anything pink with a ten foot pole. My mom's best friend used to make fun of me for it and give me pink gifts as a joke. Nowadays I'm not so much of a militant tomboy and can enjoy the color now without notable aversion. I'm not big into chocolates (unless it's dark chocolate) or roses, but I am into cocktails and a few sweet treats, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite pink libations and sweets if any of you all are also into whipping up your own sugary delights to share with your love (or a Galentine, or yourself. Valentines day is about love, right? Treat yo'self). |
Do you guys have any favorite valentine's day traditions or sweets? The time of year between new year's eve and summer always seems to drag on forever, so these little holidays are a nice way to lift spirits and do a little something out of the normal routine. Plus, it's nice that they're more low-key, participation-optional holidays, especially after the madness of Christmas. Some years I'm more "meh" about stuff like V-day, but others it's nice to get gussied up and do something more fancy! |
(above) French Macarons |
Red Velvet Cake Pops |
Clover Club Cocktail |
Strawberry Basil Lemonade Sparkler |
Blood Orange Rosemary Gin Cocktail |
Pink Cosmo |
Saturday, August 24, 2013 |
Take two prayers, and call me when you have full blown AIDS. |
I get a lot of inspiration for my blog articles from the Huffington Post Religion Section, and the comments left by the devout. It’s a veritable font of religious idiocy that keeps me informed of the latest spiritually inspired craziness. |
Yesterday there was this doozie: |
Pentecostal Minister Convinces HIV Patient to Refuse Medicine Leading to His Death Bed |
This article prompted lots of comments. One of my favorites was from a Xtian who posted the oft repeated hackneyed internet parable about the drowning man who prayed for god to save him - refusing all human aid - only to drown. When he reaches heaven he asks god why he didn’t save him, and god replies “I sent the Coast Guard, a Life Guard and a Helicopter…what more did you want?” The story was much longer of course. |
The point being that god thing provided man with all medical knowledge and technology we have, thus failing to partake of it is man’s folly. Naturally it generated baaas approval from the religiously wooly. |
I asked for, and am still awaiting, the parable that explains why god infects and kills millions of children with the HIV virus he created. I won’t hold my breath. But I digress… |
Back to the article. In reality the Pentecostal minister’s advice is totally in keeping with the basic premises of religion: delusion and false hope. |
After all, only with religion do people refuse their critically ill child medical aid that could save his life in favor of "prayer healing," which invariably allows him to die. Only in religion is the fabled mass extinction of the planet's inhabitants, human and animal, acceptable behavior; the genocide of tribes by Hebrews good and necessary; the handling of deadly snakes reasoned; and instilling in children the fear of some eternal torture chamber for simple lack of belief reasoned. Nothing like that kind of bizarre thinking exists outside of the "spiritual" world. |
But there is a kernel of logic behind the minister's advice. If prayers are always answered and one dies by substituting prayer for medical treatment it was god’s will. The shaman would no doubt justify it by proffering god answered his prayer with “No!”, and thus he would have expired from the disease even with medical treatment. With god, any crazy thinking is sound. |
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