Here are a bunch of photos from events around the world. I’ve seen so little on the wires about many of these events. Anybody have more info? Some things have been talked about and written about, but not substantively.
Some of these photos are just heartbreaking. Some are happy photos. Others are just photos of different cultures and rituals.
Opposition demo : Togolese opposition activists light tires and set up barricades to the call ‘We want a new president’ in a Lome neighborhood as voters turned out to elect a successor to 38-year ruler Gnassingbe Eyadema. (AFP/Issouf Sanogo)
Getting pierced : Avish Ramsaroop gets his body pierced by chanting devotees during the Hindu Festival of the Chitraparavam Kavady in Durban as observed by millions of Hindus throughout the world. (AFP/Rajesh Jantilal)
Unveiling ceremony : Nuns pray during an unveiling ceremony of Nanshan Guanyin statue in the well-known resort city of Sanya, in China’s island province of Hainan. (AFP/Liu Jin)
Smoke break : A performer lights a cigarette before the start of the commemoration of the golden jubilee of the 1955 Asian-African conference, in Bandung. (AFP/Philippe Lopez)
Raging fire : Iraqi firefighters take a look at raging fire erupting from a sabotaged oil pipeline in Bay Hassan oil field near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. (AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)
Detention : A man being detained by police shouts during a brug-bust operation in the district of El Gallito, in the Guatemalan capital. (AFP/Orlando Sierra)
At the Lone Pine : An Australian visitor rests in front of the Australian monument known as ‘Lone Pine’ during the ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of Anzac Day in Canakkale, Gallipoli Peninsul,a (AFP/Tarik Tinazay)
University bullets : A student show a rubber bullet fired by riot police during clashes in the surroundings of the Central American Catholic University in Managua. (AFP/Miguel Alvarez)
Orthodox pilgrims : Orthodox pilgrims rest next to a line of crosses at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Good Friday processions in Jerusalem’s old city. (AFP/Gali Tibbon)
At the fair : Children experience the so-called ‘Nest’ of the cell garden exhibited at the National Garden Festival in Munich during the fair’s opening day. (AFP/DDP/Johannes Simon)
Thai Mosque : Thai muslim villagers pray at the 400-year-old Krue Se mosque in Pattani province southern of Thailand. (AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)
Street chat : A British soldier chats with an Iraqi boy during a patrol on a street in the Iraqi southern city of Basra. (AFP/Essam al-Sudani)
A sand painting created by Tibetan monks is shown Friday, April 29, 2005, at the St. Louis Art Museum in St. Louis. On Sunday, after five days of work, the monks will destroy their creation. The process serves as a way for the Buddhists to meditate, work to spread blessing, and show the temporary nature of things in this world, even the beautiful ones. (AP Photo/James A. Finley)
This photo provided by the Nature Consortium shows Emanuel Torres, foreground, and other students from Sanislo Elementary School in Seattle, running with trees in hand, Friday, April 22, 2005, to take part in a nationwide effort to break the Guinness World Record for most trees planted in an hour. Local students and Nature Consortium members planted 1,800 trees in the West Duwamish Greenbelt in West Seattle. (AP Photo/Nature Consortium, Ron Wurzer)
In this image provided by the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, a pathologist and archaeologist examines human remains found in a mass grave near Samawa in the Muthanna Province in Iraq April 21, 2005. International forensic experts this week examined a mass grave site in Samawa, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad, collecting evidence to prosecute Saddam and his top lieutenants for the mass killings of ethnic Kurds and Shiites during his more than 30 years in power. (AP Photo/Ministry of Human Rights, HO)
A massive sand storm cloud is close to enveloping a military camp as it rolls over Al Asad, Iraq, April 27, 2005. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. REUTERS/U.S. Department of Defense/Cpl. Alicia M. Garcia, U.S. Marine Corps/Handout
Newsie’s Entries:
Thank you. What a visual treat .. even the sad or tragic photos.
Now I must click on that Bolton article about travel rules!
Two of the stories represented by photos have featured in main TV news bulletins here. The BBC reports were done by teams on the spot.
The violence in Togo is the result of a disputed election in which there were allegations of fraud. Start on the BBC site at this page, there are links to the earlier incidents and background in links on the right.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4494475.stm
The ceremonies covering the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings were covered extensively. Prince Charles was there to represent his mother who is the Queen of Australia and New Zealand. Their combined “ANZAC” forces suffered heavy losses and the landings are seminal event in both nations’ history. British troops also died there and a service was held at Westminster Abbey which the Queen attended. Further pictures and more links http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4480565.stm
Your picture from Basra may seem strange to US readers used to seeing their troops in body armor and hard kevlar helmets. The British practie is to get into “soft hat” mode to patrol as soon as possible. The idea is that it is less threatening and the population is more co-operative. Even given the diffently populated areas, even the crude balance of 1500 US dead agains 90 British (mostly “friendly fire” or accidents) does validate the practice on the face of it.
Not to denigrate the very real tragedy that befell the ANZAC and other allied forces who dies there, but that battle is also a key event in the emergence of modern Turkey.
In a political sense it was much like the Battles of Trenton and Princeton during the American Revolution. A brilliant young military leader gives his people hope against a superior enemy by pulling off a tactical victory. George Washington is called the Father of his Country- Kemal Attaturk means Father of the Turks-
Link with nice history of the campaign (mostly Allied POV).
Link to Ataturk bio.
Link to info on the moving “Ataturk Memorial” in Canberra.
Thank you for the links, Cicero.
Although I have driven past this memorial on Anzac Parade many times each week for the last 20 years, I was unaware that it was the ‘Ataturk Memorial’.
We have just had ANZAC Day on April 25, the 90th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli. Prime Minister Howard went to Gallipoli for a traditional ‘dawn service’, seeking to wrap himself in the flag and associate with the hero-worship that is the ANZAC legend. (Sorry, should explain: ANZAC = Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.)
Just as this battle was a key event in the emergence of modern Turkey, it is often credited as marking the coming of age of Australia as a nation. Australia was created as an independent nation by the merger of six British colonies in 1901. The Gallipoli campaign in 1915, with the loss of 8,000-plus Australian soldiers, was a huge event in Australia’s short history.
At school in the 1960s we were brainwashed about the heroism of the ANZACs. ANZAC Day is a national holiday, and war veterans parade in most cities. During the 70s and 80s I thought that interest in ANZAC Day went into decline – probably associated with the unpopular legacy of Vietnam.
Since becoming Prime Minister in 1996, John Howard has skillfully (although sometimes crudely) sought to exploit the military and Australia’s military history as part of his efforts to impose a new cultural & political hegemony. 11 September 2001 helped, of course.
Over the last decade there has been a growing interest in Gallipoli, with thousands of young Australians making ‘pilgrimages’ to Gallipoli. The number of people attending ANZAC Day events also seems to have increased.
One of the things I found moving this ANZAC Day was reading (in a newspaper) the Kemal Ataturk quote which is inscribed on the memorial in Canberra:
What an extraordinarily generous tribute to soldiers from far away lands who had invaded his country.
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by Manfred Weidhorn
All this was capped with what Churchill long afterwards called his “golden age”: four years as the civilian chief of Britain’s most important military weapon, the Navy. In this prominent post he was able to champion one of the few major strategic initiatives of World War I, the Gallipoli expedition.
Alas that initiative resulted in catastrophe and dismissal. Churchill’s world was in ruins; he touched bottom in political disrepute and personal dejection. “I am finished,” he lamented, and his wife Clementine “thought that he would die of grief.”
Among the foreign powers, the British, seeing Iraq as a gateway to their Indian colony, and oil as lifeblood for their Imperial Navy, were most aggressive in their pursuits in Mesopotamia, aspiring to gain physical control of the oil region. Winston Churchill, soon after he became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, declared oil to be of paramount importance for the supremacy of the Imperial Navy.
INSERT BLAIR FOR CHURCHILL
What’s the difference, but a century?
The victims are the innocent civilians and the soldiers of the expeditionary forces.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
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Similar to the appreciation by the United States for the New Europe countries and the Asian states of the former Soviet Union, Uzbekistan and Gyrgyzstan.
Australia had been a nation for just 14 years, and there was an uncertainty about how they would measure up as a race against the people who had founded them, the British. There was also a belief in society that war was a testing ground for individual and national character. Australians had been brought up on the glories of British military exploits. They were now part of that picture, and were able to match themselves against the best in the ultimate test. In the words of one contemporary, `They had been tested, and not found wanting’. So Gallipoli was a great sigh of relief that the test had been passed, an affirmation of their national worth.
"APRIL 25, 1915. LEST WE FORGET"Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Cicero, sorry if I glossed over the number of Turkish dead – combination of being late at night, the desire to be brief and the narrative to the pictures in the link describing those casualties and the Ataturk connection.
The Gallipoli venture has been rather downplayed in Britain in the past as it reflected very badly on the abilities of Winston Churchill as a war planner. The ceremonies were reported in terms of old enemies not allies commemorating together. They are also part of the lead up to the 60th anniversary of VE day.
From what Canbera Boy wrote about the Australian PM’s manipulation of ANZAC Day, it looks very much like these commemorations are being used in what seems to be an “American” response. The US Veteran’s Day always seems to come across as a celebration of victories and glorification of the warrior. I suppose this is because of a combination of distance and the comparatively few military and virtually no civilian casualties on the US mainland. Australia’s Howard from what you are saying is trying to use the distance of time to glorify fighting and bolster support for his Iraq adventure.
The Europeans on the other hand looked at the lie that World War I was “the war to end wars”, saw the devastation of the continent and effectively told their politicians after 1945 “never again”. This was reflected in the words of the New Zealand PM at the ceremonies whe she said “No joy can be found on the killing fields of Gallipoli….it is our responsibility now to reflect on their sacrifice to make sure the world does not face the horrors that these men faced.”
Sorry that second paragraph should read “old enemies now allies” which is of course completely different from the meaning of the mistype!
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Thank you for such a task – very informative.
MSM Rule Nr. 1 —
News items to be covered on condition a group of 50-100 reporters have swarmed together to cover the story, with ditto camerapersons and TV Broadcast production units with Satellite link-up.
Rule Nr. 2 — If we don’t cover it, it’s not happening.
Rule Nr. 3 — By exceptions, refer to rule Nr. 1.
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
The NNC News site now has a pieve on the excavation of the bodues that contains more information that on the caption including
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4501737.stm
The bold is a significat omission as of course in the late 80s Saddam was a client fighting the Iranians.
Thanks much for this diary, Newsie. Wonderful pictures, and sometimes they really do say a thousand words.
Anyway though, I wonder if sandpainting crosses many cultures? And if so, if they learned from each other, or if they decided to do it separately. I know some American Indian cultures made sandpaintings for ceremonies, and such, and they also either destroyed them or allowed the wind to blow them away. Possibly for the same reasons, too.
I don’t know which other cultures have done those, traditionally, but I am glad there are cameras around nowadays, to take photos of the beautiful art of them, before it blows away.