Mick Hartley

Auto accidents

From the Leslie Jones Collection at the Boston Public Library (via):

1936 - "Carl Boutille of Glenville Ave, Allston, driver only had bruises."

1927 - "Mail truck tries to climb tree. Comm. Ave. Boston."

1929 - "Car hits lamp post."

[Photos: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection]

 

Empire of light

Southwark Cathedral, with street lamp:

Like that Rene Magritte painting, L'Empire des Lumieres. 

Oh well...suit yourselves.

Stax bassman

Sort of overlooked in all the recent higher-profile disco deaths, legendary Stax bassist Duck Dunn was another loss earlier this month. Here he is in action, 45 years ago:

Booker T and the MGS, straight into a funky Green Onions, Norway, 1967 - followed by the Mar-kays and Arthur Conley. 

Part 2 of the Stax Volt Tour of Norway...Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. All great stuff: Booker T and The MGs, Arthur Conley, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, the Mar-Keys and a five-song set by Otis Redding (go to part 5)....not forgetting how remarkable it was at the time to see black and white musicians playing together.

Pink, blue, green

Late spring colour, Kenwood:

Half time

Modenesi's Towers of Finale Emilia, after the earthquake on May 20, in Ferrara, Italy:

[Photo: Roberto Serra/Iguana Press/Getty Images]

From an In Focus photogallery Earthquake in Northern Italy.

Missiles aimed at the U.S

Well this is cheery news:

North Korea is constructing a new ballistic-missile launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province, experts claimed Wednesday.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, on its blog 38north.org on Wednesday, claimed the new launch pad is for intercontinental missiles aimed at the U.S. and suggested a possible link with Iran. It said the facility can accommodate a more advanced missile than the rocket whose launch failed in February.

Of course there's a large gap between what the North Koreans aim for, in terms of military technology, and what they actually achieve. And there has to be a strong suspicion that this may be for show, to pressure the US into further talks and maybe screw some aid out of them by way of the old nuclear blackmail shuffle. 

To that end it helps, too, if Pyongyang is seen as dangerously unstable, run by a bunch of demented lunatics. That part of the plan, it has to be said, is going well. Check out the rolling rat-themed banner headlines on the official Korean Central News Agency main page:

Let Us Cut Off Windpipes of the Lee Myung Bak-led Swarm of Rats!

Let Us Wipe Out the Lee Myung Bak-led Swarm of Rats in This Land and Sky!

Let Us Shower the Lee Myung Bak-led Swarm of Rats with Fire of Retaliation!

Let Us Launch a Nationwide Sacred War to Wipe Out the Rat-like Lee Myung Bak Group!

Not really the sort of people you'd want pointing nuclear missiles at you.

Charred wood

David Nash at Kew:

Death by stoning

The latest from the Islamic Republic of Sudan (via), from Daniel Tugume at the Uganda Observer:

A Sudanese judge, Sami Ibrahim Shabo sentenced to death by stoning a young woman accused of committing adultery.

Intisar Sharif Abdalla, believed to be between 15 and 17 years of age (although prison authorities claim she is 20) was sentenced to death in accordance with Article 146 of the Sudanese criminal law albeit without legal representation.

The judgment was made on May 13, 2012 after just one hearing and came after an “admission of guilt” plea following torture and brutal beatings by Sharif’s brother who instigated the case. Her co-accused however remains un-convicted and walks freely.

This absurd decision demonstrates both the inhumane and brutal sanctioning to death for committing sexual relations outside of marriage, but furthermore calls into questions the legal institutions and frameworks applied, especially as the “admission of guilt” was made under duress.

Sharif is accused of having a relationship outside wedlock and getting impregnated by a man that is not legally her husband.  Initially, she and the man whom she is co-accused with both denied the charges.

Her lawyer, only able to access her after the judgment was made, understands that following her initial denial she was beaten up and tortured repeatedly by her brother forcing her to confess to committing adultery. With the ‘coerced’ confession, Judge Sami Ibrahim Shabo of Ombada General Criminal Court, Khartoum state, sentenced her to stoning after just one court session.

Sharif is understood to be deeply traumatized and is without access to any suitable psychosocial support. Her newly born child is also with her in prison. Ultimately, some observers believe the judgment demonstrates the scale of discrimination against women and girls in Sudan and the biased judgments made against them for acts which involves two sexes – a man and woman.

I think they might be on to something there, these observers.

Rollin' Fool

London street art animation from Dr Cream (via):

Kingsland revisited

More from the semi-derelict Kingsland Estate, Hackney (previously):

which is being transformed by artist Nazir Tanbouli:

Lea teef

More weirdness from street artist Sweet Toof, on the Lea across from the Olympic site:

Yellow Sea kidnap

Meanwhile, what's the story with those Chinese fishermen captured by North Korea last week?

The BBC had an anodyne little piece yesterday:

The 29 Chinese fishermen and three boats seized in the Yellow Sea by unidentified North Koreans have been released back to China, reports say.

The North Korean foreign ministry notified the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang on Sunday that the men were free, said Xinhua news agency.

They arrived in the northeast port city of Dalian on Monday, it said.

The group were seized on 8 May in the Yellow Sea, which lies between China and North Korea.

The men were in "sound health condition with sufficient food and healthcare", Jiang Yaxian, a counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, told Xinhua news agency.

The captors had asked for payment in return for the release of the men and boats, Chinese media reported, but Xinhua's report did not say whether payment had been made.

It remains unclear if the boats were seized by North Korean authorities or kidnappers, as some reports have suggested.

We learn more here:

The publication of the Chinese Communist Party, People’s Daily reported today that the Chinese fishermen who were released after being captured by North Korea were assaulted and most of their belongings were taken from their vessels. A similar article was carried by a sister publication, Global Times.

According to, Zhu Chuang, the captain of fishing vessel Liaodanyu No. 23536, it was North Korean soldiers who captured the Chinese fishermen, and most could not speak Chinese well.

The armed soldiers approached on a speedboat and, upon boarding, took the Chinese fishermen’s cell phones away, disabled the communications equipment on the ship and took the boats to North Korea. The soldiers moored the three ships on an island and locked the Chinese fishermen in a cabin used to store waste.

On the second day, the soldiers forced the captain to sign a document stating that they had been captured while fishing illegally.

Thereafter, the soldiers ordered the captain to ask the ship’s owner via satellite phone to transfer the ransom money, warning him that if he strayed from the script he would be beaten.

The fishermen also testified that their nets, wallets, personal belongings and clothing were all taken.

Captain Zhu remembered that the satellite navigation device was pointing to N 38° 39’ by E 125° 02’. If correct, the Chinese fishermen were held in Gwail County, South Hwanghae Province.

Where, we are informed, starvation conditions apply.

Could the kidnappers be desperate rogue soldiers, then? Or was this seizure sanctioned higher up? And, given that the case has attracted considerable attention in China, including a mention in the official People's Daily, can we expect a more robust reponse from the Chinese than is usually the case with such indiscretions from their troublesome little neighbour?

Starvation deaths

From the Daily NK:

Food shortages in the North Korean agricultural heartland of Hwanghae Province are leading to starvation deaths, Daily NK has learned. A significant percentage of cooperative farm workers are reportedly too malnourished to work, and a number are leaving their farms to seek help.

A North Hwanghae Province source told the Daily NK in recent days, “Local people are in pain from hunger, but the only help that households short of food are receiving from the authorities is 1 or 2 kg of corn; it’s emergency relief but only sufficient to stop them starving. Seeing the situation getting worse and with help from the authorities being so inadequate, there are people leaving for other areas to get help from family.”

The source gave an example of one village, saying, “Hangae-ri in Shingye County alone has seen a total of six children and elderly people die of starvation. At the same time, all the authorities are doing is telling everyone to try and overcome the difficulties.” ...

There are three main reasons for the widespread food insecurity in North and South Hwanghae Province in recent months. First, production in 2011 fell locally due to flooding; second, military units charged with procuring supplies from farms sent most of the autumn harvest to military stores or for public distribution in Pyongyang. Finally, during the 100-day mourning period for Kim Jong Il (December 17th-March 25th) market trading was disrupted, removing the food safety net that has helped North Korea to avoid famine repeatedly in recent years. 

Market trading was initially forbidden in this period, and although markets did soon reopen on the orders of Kim Jong Eun, the source said that since only people who hold a specific entry permit can enter militarily sensitive South Hwanghae and Gangwon Province, “the Haeju area got cut off because it was impossible to obtain a travel permit.”

As food insecurity worsened, people reportedly urged officials to help, but violating Party decrees during the mourning period was seen as more than their life was worth. 

Tokyo Shinmun reported in mid April that 20,000 people had died of starvation in three counties in South Hwanghae Province; Baechon, Yeonan and Chungdan. Though information about inaccessible and sparsely populated Gangwon Province is limited, it seems unlikely that the area could avoid cases of starvation entirely.

Another report:

Example interviews published in Korean by ASIAPRESS include a woman in her 40s from South Hwanghae Province who claimed that for her the “situation is more difficult than during the ‘March of Tribulation’,” referring to the famine that killed many hundres of thousands of North Koreans in the 1990s.

“The food situation is worse than it was three years ago,” the woman went on. “The waiting room at the station in Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province is overflowing with beggar children, both boys and girls, younger and older.”

A man in his 30s from South Hwanghae Province also testified similarly, saying that “Malnutrition is getting more prevalent for farmers. The farming is going really badly.”

Another witness, from North Hamkyung Province but with experience of visiting Hwanghae, claimed, “I heard from a Hwanghae Province resident that people dead from starvation are appearing in Haeju every day.

And here:

To North Korean defectors, it is clear that the civilian starvation is a direct result of the decision to prioritize the military under the military-first policy and the subsequent obligation on the part of cooperative farms to provide rice for soldiers, coupled to controls covering trading activities by farm employees.

AFP have picked up the story:

Food shortages have worsened even in North Korea’s southwestern rice belt and some residents have starved to death there, a Seoul-based online newspaper said Monday....

Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group, also said on its website that starvation continued to claim victims throughout South Hwanghae. At Hwanghae Steelworks some workers had died because food rations stopped, it said.

Boilermaker

December 1942, Melrose Park, Illinois. "L. Logan, of West Chicago, boilermaker at the Proviso Yard roundhouse, Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano, Office of War Information:

[Photo: Shorpy/Jack Delano]

Full size.

Dryad

Abney Park Cemetery: