https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/13/cash-digitise-payments-money-cashless
Published in The Guardian, written by Brett Scott who is a campaigner and former broker:
“In granting financial corporations complete control over the money system, our every economic interaction ends up logged in their databases for analysis. ”
Do we want this?
Peter and I saw today this Diane Keaton movie about Hampstead. Peter had first to go to the Private Wollongong Hospital for an appointment with his podiatrist who is fitting him some insoles. These insoles might help him with his walking. The podiatrist spent with Peter a bit over an hour. It was already 11,45 when we left the hospital. This left us less than half an hour to make it to the GALA in Warrawong to see the movie. But we were lucky. We still made it on time. This movie was well worth seeing. I am glad we did make it.
http://villagecinemas.com.au/movies/hampstead
“Starring Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson, Hampstead is a heartwarming romantic comedy set around the beautiful Hampstead Heath in London, a quiet piece of countryside in a vast metropolis. Living in a lovely old apartment on the edge of the Heath, American widow Emily Walters (Keaton) feels like she is drifting aimlessly through life. Then she meets Donald (Gleeson), who has lived harmoniously on the Heath for 17 years in a ramshackle hut. When property developers attempt to destroy his home, Emily steps up to defend Donald in the escalating battle and soon finds that, despite his gruff exterior, there is something special about this gentle and unconventional man.”
Monday 4 September 2017 21.21 AEST
South Korea has carried out a simulated attack on North Korea’s nuclear test site in a huge show of force after Pyongyang detonated what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.
Seoul has also approved the complete deployment of a US anti-missile system in another sign it intends to address North Korean provocations with reminders of its own military firepower, while keeping the door open to dialogue.
South Korean intelligence officials said there were indications that the North was preparing to test fire another ballistic missile, though they did not say when they believed the launches would take place.
The army and air force drills, held at an undisclosed location on Monday morning, involved launching ballistic missiles in a simulated strike against North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site – the scene of Sunday’s controlled detonation of what Pyongyang claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb capable of being loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korean forces conducted the drill alone, but further joint exercises are planned with the US in an attempt to remind the North of the firepower ranged against it, according to South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff.
In addition, Seoul and Washington are considering the deployment of a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, strategic bomber and other military hardware to the Korean peninsula in response to Sunday’s test.
Monday’s live-fire drills were held hours after James Mattis, the US defence secretary, said there would be a “massive military response” if North Korea threatened the US or any of its allies.
“Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam or our allies, will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming,” he said after meeting Donald Trump and his national security team.
Mattis added: “We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea. But as I said, we have many options to do so
Switzerland, which has troops deployed in the demarcation zone between South Korea and North Korea, offered to help as mediator in the crisis, including by hosting ministerial talks. “It is really time now to sit down at a table,” Swiss president Doris Leuthard said. “Big powers have a responsibility.”
In a sign that South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, is hardening his stance towards Pyongyang, his government approved additional deployments of a controversial US missile defence system, possibly as early as this week.
Moon had initially opposed the introduction of terminal high-altitude area defence, or Thaad, which had been agreed to by his conservative predecessor Park Geun-hye.
He appears to have dropped his objections in light of North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear tests, and a dramatic rise in tensions on the peninsula since he took office in May.
Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the Korea national diplomatic academy in Seoul, said Sunday’s nuclear test had convinced Moon to respond with a show of military might.
“He is getting tougher and tougher because the nuclear test showed that North Korea is moving closer to the ‘red line’,” Kim told the Guardian. “Moon will be flexible, but he knows that this is not the time for talks with North Korea.”
That red line would be crossed if Pyongyang perfected a long-range missile with the ability to carry a nuclear warhead to the US mainland, Kim said, adding that North Korea’s emergence as a genuine nuclear state would increase pressure on Seoul and Tokyo to develop their own nuclear deterrents.
“The US’s ability to defend Japan and South Korea is at the core of its alliances in the region, but if North Korea becomes a de facto nuclear state, then those countries would face pressure to develop nuclear deterrents independent of the US,” he said.
$7.5bn
North Korea
$299 per person
$44bn
South Korea
$860 per perso
$44bn per person
Japan
$346 per person
$162bn
China
$118 per person
$588bn
US annual defence budget
$1,817 per person
The first two Thaad batteries went operational, amid widespread opposition, in the central village of Seongju in late April. The deployment of a further four batteries was suspended pending the outcome of an environmental impact assessment.
South Korea’s environment ministry had approved Thaad’s “temporary” deployment after a government assessment concluded that the system’s powerful X-band radar posed no danger to the environment or the health of local people.
The new launchers will also be deployed in Seongju, about 190 miles ((300km) south of Seoul. Each Thaad battery comprises six launchers and a radar system. China has angrily opposed Thaad deployments, saying the system’s powerful radar could be used to spy on its missile programme and so represents a threat to its national security.
Moon and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will push hard for further sanctions against North Korea when the UN security council meets later on Monday.
Abe told Moon in a phone call on Monday that Sunday’s nuclear test was “a head-on challenge to the international community”, according to Japan’s deputy chief cabinet secretary, Yasutoshi Nishimura.
Abe said the international community should bring the “strongest possible pressure” to bear on Pyongyang, including additional sanctions. He said Japan would urge China and Russia to do more to pressure the North Korean regime to halt its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Moon said South Korea vowed to maintain a strong bilateral security alliance with the US to counter provocations from the North, after Trump chastised Seoul for talking about “appeasement” towards Pyongyang.
That description is likely to have caused consternation in South Korea, where officials have maintained that they are combining economic and military pressure while not ruling out dialogue – essentially the stance being taken by Washington.
The US has reiterated that it is “100%” committed to defending South Korea and Japan – where it has tens of thousands of troops – under bilateral security treaties.
On Sunday, Trump hinted that Washington and Seoul were drifting apart on how to deal with the North Korean threat. The South, he tweeted, “is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing”.
Patrick Cronin, an Asia expert with the Center for a New American Security, said Trump’s comment was probably “intended to stiffen the spine of an ally”.
“I think Washington is very serious about showing some unexpected resolve,” Cronin told the Associated Press. “We need our ally and we need to remain ironclad. But at the same time, we can’t afford South Korea to go weak in facing down this growing danger.”
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said land-based Hyunmoo-2A missiles and SLAM-ER long-range missiles fired by F-15K fighter jets had hit designated targets in the East Sea, the Korean name for the Sea of Japan.
Under an agreement with the US, South Korea is banned from developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 800km (497 miles) and a payload exceeding 500kg (1,102lb).
Seoul is reportedly seeking double the warhead weight limit, according to media reports. The JoongAng newspaper quoted a spokesman at the presidential Blue House in Seoul as saying the two countries had agreed “in principle” on the need to improve South Korea’s missile defences.
https://nuclear-news.net/author/christinamacpherson/
Please go to the above page and find out what can and must be done towards a Nuclear Ban Treaty! I absolutely agree that indeed human survival is at stake. Do we want that humans can survive or do we not care? That is the question.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/31/human-flow-review-ai-weiwei-refugee-crisis
“The international co-productions of the mid-20th century often boasted myriad shooting locations in far-flung places. Who would have guessed the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei would pick up where moguls such as Sam Spiegel left off.
Ai’s new film, Human Flow, while certainly epic in scope, is not exactly meant as entertainment. This is an urgent, deep soak in the current refugee crisis. There has been no dearth of documentaries about this topic, but this one comes closest to understanding the totality of the issue. . . . .”
I copied the above from The Guardian
Published on Dec 17, 2015
Published on Feb 28, 2017
Dr. Axel Munz was today a guest in the Deutswche Welle. This is why I googled the following about dirndl and lederhosen and copied it. It says that
CNN’s global series i-List takes you to a different country each month. In February, we visit Germany and look at changes shaping the country’s economy, culture and social fabric.
(CNN) — To an outsider, lederhosen and dirndl — the traditional costumes of Bavaria — may seem like an outdated symbol of a bygone age, last seen in “The Sound of Music.”
But the outfits — short leather dungarees for men and wide skirts with corsets for women — have become must-haves for the young and fashion-conscious of Munich in south Germany.
They are particularly popular at Oktoberfest, Munich’s annual beer festival attracting 6.4 million visitors, and increasingly at fashionable parties and weddings.
The German edition of Vogue magazine regularly features Bavarian costumes in its September issue, according to Simone Egger, a researcher in cultural studies, and shops open around the city every August specifically to sell Oktoberfest costumes.
Lola Paltinger, a designer who sells couture dirndls for 2,500 euros, or about $3,440, said: “When I first went to Oktoberfest everyone was in jeans. The only traditional costumes were dark, sad and unfashionable.
“Now they come in bright colors, modern designs and are more comfortable. It still has a wide skirt and a corset, but it’s one you can breathe, eat and drink in.”
Paltinger began designing dirndls as a project at her fashion college, and after an apprenticeship with Vivienne Westwood, began her own business.
She said: “I was sitting outside at the Oktoberfest with my friends talking about what we were going to do for our diplomas. The atmosphere of the Oktoberfest got to me and I just thought of doing traditional costumes.”
When she started her business 11 years ago, Paltinger sold about 20 dirndls a year. She now sells 1,000 a year, both custom-made and off-the-rack, and supplies 20 to 30 weddings.
She said: “When you see someone in dirndl or lederhosen they look wonderful, and you are really disappointed later when you see them in normal clothes. The dirndls in particular are very sexy and feminine.
“For women there are bright colors and modern styles, but for men you can’t really do lederhosen in a modern way. In my opinion, there’s nothing nicer than a real, traditional lederhosen.”
Of course, most people can’t afford to buy their outfits from designers like Paltinger. You can pick up a new dirndl for 50 to 60 euros or lederhosen for 120 euros, according to Karoline Graf of the Munich Tourist Office, and there is a thriving second-hand market.
Paltinger said: “Many, many shops sell dirndl and lederhosen in the run up to the Oktoberfest. Some of them just open up especially and sell them very cheaply, made in India. It’s a big business.
“Some people say it’s not good to sell cheap ones, but I think it’s really nice that so many young people want to wear them and pay homage to Bavarian tradition.”
Angermaier, a traditional clothes business with two stores in Munich and other temporary stores in high season, has seen lederhosen sales double over the past 10 years. Sales of dirndls have risen 500% over the same period.
Axel Munz, director of the company, said: “The customers have become younger and more trendy. Fashion has found its way into tracht (traditional costumes).
“People wear traditional costumes at weddings, special events or folk festivals, but mainly they wear it at the Oktoberfest.”
Egger, a researcher at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, wrote a diploma thesis on the popularity of traditional Bavarian costumes.
She said: “About 10 years ago I noticed all the young people wearing dirndl and lederhosen and thought ‘what’s going on?’ I’m a cultural scientist so I wanted to find out why.
“At the beginning, it was just for the Oktoberfest, but now it is for parties and sometimes weddings. Nowadays pretty much everybody in Munich and the surrounding region has at least one traditional outfit.”
She added: “The choice to wear traditional costumes appears to be more than just a fashion trend.
“Possibly, a mobile society wishes to demonstrate affiliation. In times of international networking, local and regional references become even more important.”
She added that the first to take up the fashion were 16 to 18-year-olds who felt free to wear traditional costume precisely because there was no pressure from their parents to do so.
Gabriele Hammerschick, chief buyer of traditional clothes for the clothes store Lodenfrey, said customers had become younger in recent years and bought dirndl and lederhosen all year round for weddings, parties, christenings, Christmas and of course, Oktoberfest.
She said people had rediscovered tradition for its permanence in a fast-paced world.
Graf said: “Twenty years ago, no young men or women would go out in traditional costume because it wasn’t fashionable.
“Now teenagers, students, people of all ages wear them.”
http://www.dw.com/en/my-father-a-stranger-from-north-korea/a-18542325
“Loved, Engaged, Lost” – A documentary that tells the love story between women from former East Germany and North Korean men sent to the former Communist nation for studying. A relationship with painful consequences.
The eyes of the protagonists in Sung-Hyung Cho’s “Loved, Engaged, Lost” reveal that their roots do not lie in the former German Democratic Republic, at least not entirely. They grew up with their mothers in the ex-Communist nation, but their fathers come from North Korea.
The men were sent to East Germany by the North Korean government during the 1950s – some of them during the Korean War – to attend university and later use their knowledge to re-build their war-torn nation.
During their stay, however, some of the men entered relationships with East German women. But the children born out of these relations did not see their fathers for long, as the men were ordered to return to their homeland in the 1960s, resulting in a break-up of the families.
A documentary film made by Sung-Hyung Cho, which premiered in Germany on June 25, tells the stories of these families and takes a look at their lives. Although there is no precise figure on the number of families affected, the director is aware of 18 such cases. In a DW interview, Sung-Hyung Cho talks about the idea behind the film and her experiences in making it.
Sung-Hyung: ‘It wasn’t easy at first to win over the support of the protagonists’
DW: What was the idea behind the film?
Sung-Hyung Cho: The story of Renate Hong was very popular in South Korea. In 2006, her story became the talk of the town after a South Korean historian – who had conducted some research in Jena about the relationship between North Korea and East Germany – met Renate Hong by chance.
She narrated her story, and he propagated it on the Internet. The response was overwhelming. The Koreans were blown away by the sad but beautiful love story.
Most Koreans, myself included, know the story. Moreover, I was greatly interested in knowing and better understanding former East Germany. I also wanted to know more about North Korea, even if only indirectly.
How did you manage to find the films’ protagonists?
It wasn’t easy at first to win over the support of the protagonists, especially given that this is both a painful subject and an unsolved issue for most of them. It was especially hard for them to reminisce about their past relationships.
As a result, many didn’t want to be reminded of it, let lone talk about it. In addition, they were cautious and distrustful of the media.
However, the fact that I’ve been regularly attending the meetings of these German-Korean families helped me in terms of slowly earning their trust. A couple of years later, they probably asked themselves when this Korean woman would finally shoot the film about them.
Do you know of stories in which children got to meet their fathers and their love for each other stood the test of time?
The Hong family eventually managed to track down the father. Renate and her sons ultimately traveled to North Korea for what turned out to be a very emotional, touching but also peculiar reunion following so many years of separation.
In your view, how do these children, who are now grown-ups, feel about their North Korean fathers?
Just like anywhere else, this depends on the child. What they all have in common is a longing to get to meet their respective fathers or at least learn something about their lives. They are very curious, asking themselves who the man is, what he has achieved and whether he is even alive. But tracking these men down is often extremely difficult.
How do the women mostly remember their former partners?
In different ways. Some decided at some point to distance themselves emotionally and go about their lives as if their partner had died. Others, however, tried to keep the memory alive and to simply come to terms with the situation. And then there are others who decided to actively track them down.
The story of Renate Hong was very popular in South Korea
To which extent does the children’s Korean background play a role in their daily lives?
Those are their roots. And even though some of these parents remain unknown to them, these roots remain and simply do not disappear. It sometimes plays a bigger role and sometimes a lesser one. But the father’s influence is always reflected in the children’s physical appearance.
Have you yourself tried to track down and contact one of the fathers?
This was mainly done by the children. There are even German-Korean associations to assist in this regard.
Is there a single story that has touched you in a special way?
Each story is extremely touching in its own way, so I can’t just pick one. The story of the Hong family was the first one I ever heard, but then came so many others and each one of them was moving and touching.
Born in South Korea, Sung Hyung Cho is a Germany-based editor and director, known for Full Metal Village (2006), Endstation der Sehnsüchte (2009) and 11 Freundinnen (2013).
Telling the North Korean Story
A new film made by Sung-Hyung Cho attempts to give outsiders an insight into life in North Korea. The director, who even had to give up her South Korean nationality to shoot the film, spoke to DW about the project.
http://www.dw.com/en/my-brothers-and-sisters-in-the-north-telling-the-north-korean-story/a-19416746
| Cho Sung-hyung | |
|---|---|
Cho Sung-Hyung (right) and Minister-presidentof Schleswig-Holstein Peter Harry Carstensenpresented the T-Shirt of her documentary “Full Metal Village”.
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| Born | Cho Sung-Hyung Busan, South Korea |
| Residence | Germany |
| Occupation | Director, editor, film maker and professor |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Known for | Full Metal Village |
Cho Sung-hyung (born 1966) is an award-winning German, film maker, director, editor and professor living and working in Germanywith South Korean roots. She was born in Busan and grew up in Soeul and got German citizenship in 2016 due her documentary My brothers and sisters to the North.
She received a BA in Mass Communications Studies from Yonsei University. In 1990, Cho moved to Marburg in Germany to pursue a MAin art history, media studies and philosophy at the University of Marburg. She continued with post-graduate studies in Theater Film and Media Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurtand a course in electronic images at Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main.[1] Between 2004 and 2007 she had taught Editoring, Documentary and Dramaturgyat SAE Institute and was between 2008 and 2009 an assistant lecturer at the Technical University of Darmstadt; in 2010 as an assistant professor. Since 2011, Cho teaches as regular professor The Art of Film/Movie Making at the University for Visual Arts of Saar in Saarbrücken, Germany. [2]
Cho was an assistant editor for the German television series Ein Fall für zwei, also working on documentaries and music videos. Her documentary Full Metal Village received the Hessian Film Award in 2006 and the Max Ophüls Prize and was named best documentary by the Guild of German Art House Cinemas in 2007.[1] In 2016, Cho had filmed and was starring in the documentary Meine Brüder und Schwestern in Nordkorea – other international titles: Meine Brüder und Schwestern im Norden [3], My brothers and sisters to the North [4]. She was the first South Korean director who was allowed to visit North Korea after Korean Warwithout being charged for treason by South Korea, because she has a German passport. She gave up South Korean citizenship and took the German one just for making this documentary and getting a visa and the permission of shooting from North Korea.[5]
[hide]
“If I don’t do it, who will?”
“The first time I removed a sticker, I felt so good that I had done something,” Irmela Mensah-Schramm says.
“Mensah-Schramm—who looks like a kindly grandmother, with her white hair and smiling face—has been physically assaulted by neo-Nazis, threatened with fines by authorities, and derided by those around her, but still she looks for hateful stickers on letterboxes, road signs, and lampposts. She photographs them, and either scrapes them off or sprays over them. Her eagle eye notices stickers that most passers-by never spot. . . . . . . . ”
AuntyUta 