Mick Hartley

Lower East Side 1936

Pike and Henry Street:

With Manhattan Bridge as a backdrop. Taken by Berenice Abbott. From a fine collection of images of old New York here.

[Thanks PH]

America, Israel

Well that didn't take long. The day after the football bloodbath in Port Said on Wednesday, Egyptian MP Mustafa Bakri knows who to blame:

Our country is entering a state of anarchy. This anarchy is caused by America, Israel and the former regime. Look at the New Middle East scheme. Don't talk about all the minute details. What happened in Port Said is a continuation of what happened in Muhammad Mahmoud Street, in Al-Qasr Al-Ayni Street, across from the government, across from Maspero, and in the soccer match against Tunisia. They are all connected. It is an attempt to bring this country down.

James Brown and the Famous Flames 1964

Get past the idiots at the beginning and this is fourteen minutes of pure solid gold soul: the legendary T.A.M.I. show performance. From the moment he comes on you know he's giving it everything. And look at those moves. In later years he lost some (not much, but some) of that energy, but here he's in absolute peak form.

Ladeez and gentlemen..the hardest working man in show business:

Already at this stage in his career he's got that cape routine going: the moment in every show when, overcome with emotion, drenched in sweat, exhausted, he sinks to his knees, and his minders place the cape over his shoulders and solicitously lead him off-stage - only for the man to rip the cape off, spin round, grab the mike, and launch into another round of tear-drenched pleading. It's fabulous theatre.

The Stones had the misfortune to follow this. Keith Richards said it was the biggest mistake of their career. 

The Latest from Pyongyang

A dramatic picture captures the last moments of Kim Jong-un as he's led away to be shot for crimes against humanity by North Korean officers, in a surprise military coup earlier today:

[Photo: Reuters/KCNA]

OK, sorry - here's the real caption:

Closely escorted, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Command of Large Combined Unit 671 of the Korean People's Army in this undated picture released by the North's KCNA in Pyongyang, on January 22, 2012.

From an In Focus gallery Kim Jong Un Looking at Things. No, not an original name. 

Keen followers of this site - of whom there are many - will have seen some of these already.

Chimney Watch

Kenwood House, Hampstead:

The ultras were the target

Interesting piece at the Jerusalem Post on the Egyptian football riots:

For the ultras, as for many politicians and ordinary Egyptians, the anger was not that soccer fans clashed but that security forces appeared to have done little to stop them...

"Today, the Marshal and the remnants of the regime send us a clear message. We either have our freedom or they punish us and execute us for participating in a revolution against tyranny," the group said in the statement, quickly circulated online.

Residents of Port Said, as well as some politicians and ultras themselves, feel the group was the target.

"Ultras are very popular and respected among the revolutionaries," said 45-year-old Port Said trader Ahmed Badr.

"The ultras were the target (on Wednesday). This was a setup for them, a massacre. The military council and the security forces are the only parties held accountable for such events."

 Ultras employed years of experience dealing with police at matches to devastating effect against Mubarak's security forces when they used heavy-handed tactics to try to crush the revolt...

Daring cat-and-mouse tactics by ultras, often teenagers or men in their early 20s, and steadfastness at front-line barricades under tear gas and rubber bullets wore the police down until they cracked. Within days of the anti-Mubarak uprising erupting, the police were replaced by the army.

Since then, ultras have stayed at the battle-front, scuffling with the army and police, in the upsurges of violence since Mubarak's downfall in and around Tahrir, where protesters have demanded the army hand over power immediately to civilians.

 [...]

An army statement announced three days of national mourning.

Ultras Al Ahli responded with a statement on one of their Facebook pages saying that mourning should not be just for the dead but "for everyone who lost his morals, mourning for everyone who sold his soul, mourning for everyone who did not care for the country."

The violence flared on Wednesday after Al Ahli fans unfurled banners insulting Port Said's al-Masry. One man went onto the pitch carrying an iron bar at the end of the match, which al-Masry won 3-1. Al-Masry fans reacted by pouring onto the pitch and attacking Ahli players before attacking fans on the terraces. The police appeared to have no ability to stop it.

"For the first time in the history of matches between these two teams, we did not find police officers or state security. Police withdraw from the stadium and yes, your plot is as clear to us as daylight," the UTS group said in its statement.

Talking about unification

The eventual reunification of Korea may seem as far off as ever but it'll come someday, perhaps with as little advance warning as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany in 1989. But comparisons with Germany are problematic to say the least: the gap between East and West presented major problems which reverberate to this day, but it was nothing compared to the chasm that now exists between North and South Korea. The physical differences are just the start.

In Der Spiegel (part 2, part 3) veteran German politicians from the reunification period, in Seoul to advise the government, talk about their experience. Lothar de Maizière, the last prime minister of the former East Germany:

"I didn't believe that German unity would ever come, either -- and then it suddenly happened," he says. This is already de Maizière's fifth trip to South Korea since German reunification. He has spoken to students, academics and government officials. "This is now my fourth or fifth Korean unification minister. They appoint new ones all the time. I can't remember all their names," says de Maizière. "Or their faces," adds Schönbohm.

"They always have the same questions," says de Maizière. "It was the same story today. The Koreans basically don't want unity to cost too much, and I tell them it will cost much more than you can imagine." Eppelmann nods in agreement. "I've realized that the South Koreans are trying to figure out a way for the North Koreans to remain in the North after unification," says Eppelmann. "The South Koreans were talking about border controls. I'll be damned! They seriously intend to close the border after the wall has fallen!"

But, as Marcus Noland argues, there is genuine concern in the South about a flood of refugees. A recent report issued by the Korean Employers Federation claimed that a sudden collapse of the North Korean state could send as many as 3.65 million North Koreans across the DMZ. With that kind of scenario in mind, the maintenance of border controls as a temporary measure, though unpalatable, may be the best option.

Of course there may be no reunification. It would need to be acceptable to the Chinese, and it's not at all clear that that's the case. Also, many South Koreans may not be prepared to pay the price. They're doing pretty well as they are, and even the few North Korean refugees that do make it to the South now don't find acceptance easy:

You can immediately recognize a North Korean by the way he speaks, says Sang Don Park, a ministry official responsible for matters relating to refugees. He says that North Koreans don't use any Anglicisms, but they do use communist political jargon that no one in the South is familiar with. These are presumably terms like ones that were common in East Germany that only raised quizzical looks among Germans in the West after reunification. A North Korean often understands only 60 percent of South Korean, says Sang. What's more, he adds, there is a different intonation and various dialects. Not to mention health problems: North Koreans have poor teeth due to malnourishment. Many suffer from depression and other psychological problems when they arrive in the South. North Korean refugees receive financial aid for five years after they leave the camp. There are programs that help them find work and housing -- and acquire an education.

South Koreans are probably afraid that they will have to re-educate and finance an entire people -- and pay for their dental care -- if unification becomes a reality.

"Many young South Koreans are put off by the costs" as well, says Deputy Minister Kim and cites the following figures: Only approximately 35 percent of the 19 to 40-year-olds see reunification as an important political issue.

The desire to unite is continuously ebbing. South Korea's older generation has long since lost touch with friends and relatives north of the border. The younger generation has never had a chance to meet. Viewed from the South, North Korea is a distant, uninhabitable planet. It's not even possible to hop across the border for a quick look, as West German schoolchildren used to do on field trips to East Berlin.

But now, fortunately, the Germans are here. Kim hopes that they will rekindle the fires of enthusiasm.

Markfield revisited

My last Markfield post featured street art by Shok-1. That's all been painted over: there's a fast turnover here in South Tottenham. So what's happening now?

Lea View

Looking south towards Springfield Park:

Community outrage

It's the same old story (see Kenan Malik in the previous post): define people by their faith, and talk endlessly of "the Muslim community", "the Sikh community", as though they're a monolithic bloc. Then it's left open for those with the loudest voices to set themselves up as community spokesmen - and for those loud-mouths to be accepted by secular liberals as the "authentic" voice of that community.

We've seen it with Muslims, ever since the Rushdie affair. Now with the latest absurd Jay Leno scandal we're seeing it with Sikhs. From the original BBC report:

The Sikh community has launched an online petition over the comment.

The whole Sikh community?? Or perhaps just the odd loud-mouth, like the man who's suing Leno over his "racist" remarks:

Indian-American Randeep Dhillon says Leno "hurt the sentiments of all Sikh people in addition to the plaintiff".

All Sikh people??

Now this idiot assumes the mantle of the authentic voice of Sikhs everywhere. Some MPs are quick onto the bandwagon in support of the supposedly outraged Sikh community:

That this House notes with concern the sketch on the NBC Jay Leno Show where the most sacred Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple, was disrespected by Jay Leno when it was referred to as GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's summer home; expresses concern and regret that this depiction of the Golden Temple as a home of the rich shows a complete misunderstanding of the Sikh faith and is derogatory to Sikhs across the world; believes that these comments are not acceptable to all those who believe in respect for all religions; calls on Jay Leno and NBC to apologise to all Sikhs for this disrespectful depiction of the Golden Temple; and further calls on the Government to make representations to the US government that while recognising principles of freedom of speech there should be more understanding and respect shown to the Sikh faith.

Which is perhaps the most pathetic Early Day Motion I've yet read - though to be fair I don't make a habit of reading them.

Meanwhile most Sikhs are no doubt feeling more embarrassed than outraged. But this is the logic, when the world is divided into faith communities: the hard-liners, the demagogues, rise to the top.

The New Blasphemy

Kenan Malik has transcribed the talk he gave at the conference on blasphemy last weekend in Conway Hall. It's particularly relevant in the light of recent developments at the LSE, where the Students Union, in their claim that giving offence to Muslims is Islamophobic, and that Islamophobia is a form of racism, have effectively re-introduced a new idea of blasphemy updated for our times. We see a similar re-working in the repeal of the old blasphemy law in favour of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act: the offence is no longer deemed to be against God, or society in general, but against the individual or a particular faith-defined "community": 

In recent decades, faith has, in other words, transformed itself into the religious wing of identity politics.  Religion has, ironically, become secularised, driven less by a search for piety and holiness than for identity and belongingness.  The rise of identity politics has transformed the meaning not just of religion but of blasphemy too. Blasphemy used to be regarded as a sin against God. These days it is felt as a sin against the individual believer, an offence against the self and one’s identity.... This is also why many laws these days that ostensibly protect faith – such as Britain’s Racial and Religious Hatred Act – are framed primarily in terms of protecting the culture and identity of individuals or communities. In today’s world, identity is God, in more ways than one.

The transformation in the meaning of blasphemy has...become a means of protecting beliefs deemed essential not to society as a whole, but to specific communities, and to an individual’s identity and self-esteem. What, however, defines a community? And who defines which beliefs are essential to a community? Or to the identity of individuals within it?  These, too, are matters not of theology, or even of culture, but of power. The struggle to define certain beliefs or thoughts as offensive or blasphemous is a struggle to establish power within a community and to establish one voice as representative or authentic of that community. What is called offence to a community is in reality usually a debate within a community. – but in viewing that debate as a matter of offence or of blasphemy, one side gets instantly silenced.

Take the row over Salman Rushdie’s appearance, or rather non-appearance, at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The Islamists who, with connivance from the state and the festival organizers, successfully prevented Rushdie from appearing, even by video link, no more spoke for the Muslim community than Rushdie himself did. Both represented different strands of opinion within different Muslim communities. And this has been true since the beginnings of the Rushdie affair. Back in the 1980s Rushdie gave voice to a radical, secular sentiment that in then was deeply entrenched within Asian communities. Rushdie’s critics spoke for some of the most conservative strands. Their campaign against The Satanic Verses was not to protect the Muslim communities from unconscionable attack from anti-Muslim bigots but to protect their own privileged position within those communities from political attack from radical critics, to assert their right to be the true voice of Islam by denying legitimacy to such critics. And they succeeded at least in part because secular liberals embraced them as the ‘authentic’ voice of the Muslim community.

It's worth reading in full. 

The other side

Back of the British Museum, Montague Place:

Shrinking Nation

Everywhere, as diet improves, humans are getting taller. Well, almost everywhere:

The average height of a North Korean today appears to be shorter than that of his or her ancestors from the Chosun Dynasty, based on groundbreaking research into Chosun Dynasty average heights.

In the research, published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Professor Hwang Yong Il and Shin Dong Hun from the Seoul National University Department of Anatomy collected thigh bones from the remains of 116 people (67 male, 49 female) from the Chosun Dynasty period (15th-19th century); they then analyzed their average lengths and extrapolated average heights of 161.1cm for males (±5.6cm) and 148.9cm for females (±4.6cm).

This makes Chosun Dynasty people 12.9cm and 11.6cm shorter than South Korean people of today as surveyed by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s Agency for Technology and Standards, 

However, 2010 data from the same Agency for Technology and Standards estimated the average height of all North Koreans at 158cm through 164cm. The 2005 East Asian Statistic Almanac, meanwhile, stated the average North Korean male’s height as 158cm. If the lower figures were correct, it would make the North Korean shorter than his Chosun Dynasty ancestor.

One North Korean defector who entered into South Korea in 2010 said this figure may even be too high, and that North Koreans could be even smaller on average than predicted, pointing out, “I was surprised that my children grew 3cm taller after eating well in China after months of starving in North Korea.”

That North Koreans are shorter than South Koreans is reasonably well-established. This is the first indication I've seen that they're also shorter than their ancestors.

Figure Skating Action

From a gallery at the Telegraph:

[Photo: Sari Gustafsson / Rex Features]

"Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia perform during the pairs free skating event at the European Figure Skating Championships 2012 in Sheffield."

[Hat tip: Damian, Facebook]

Homestead, Pennsylvania, 1910

Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie Steel Co., Pittsburgh:

[Photo: Shorpy/Detroit Publishing Company]

Detail from a spectacular panoramic view at Shorpy, made from four 8x10 inch glass negatives.