WHERE JAZZ, SHOW BUSINESS AND POLITICS CONVERGE
By Ben Ratliff
New York Times
Published: September 19, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 – The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, now
20 years old, has a private face and a public one, and there is a
dissonance between them.
Bill Crandall for The New York Times
Tigran Hamasyan performing at the Thelonious Monk International Piano
Competition, which he won.
The private one involves a small postgraduate program in jazz
performance, operating out of the University of Southern California,
presided over by the trumpeter and educator Terence Blanchard. The
public one is an annual jazz contest and a sparkly, self-celebrating
concert, usually recorded for television, buttressed with top-ranking
federal government officials and famous nonjazz performers.
There is a point at which pop’s intersection with jazz is a good idea:
their histories are intertwined, and each can renew the other’s
aesthetic resources. And there is a point at which the federal
government’s intersection with jazz makes sense, like the State
Department’s 50-year history of sponsoring jazz tours in foreign
countries. Past those points – and some of the events around the Monk
Institute’s Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition,
last weekend, kept going past them – a spectator starts to wonder
what the institute’s real purpose is.
Nevertheless, the semifinals of the Monk Institute’s annual
competition, which happened Saturday afternoon in the auditorium at the
Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, remain a fascinating index
of what young jazz musicians in the mainstream are sounding like,
and of what judges choose to reward year by year. The contest is
open to musicians under 30, and this year the instrument was piano;
the heavy-duty contest judges were Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill,
Danilo Perez, Renee Rosnes, Billy Taylor and Randy Weston.
The winner was Tigran Hamasyan, a 19-year old Armenian pianist
currently studying at the University of Southern California, though
as an undergraduate, not within the Monk Institute program. His
performances, in both the semifinals and the finals, were intensely
searching, and stubborn in their intuitive force: jazz, for him,
is about constantly moving around the rhythmic accents in a piece
of music so that nearly every bar seems to be in a different time
signature from the last.
His concept of style, as he revealed in the standards “Cherokee” and
“Solar,” had something to do with Keith Jarrett (as did the sound
of so many other pianists in the contest), with his long-phrased,
almost intemperate melodic improvising; it had to do with Mr.
Hancock, too, and his sense of order and harmonic vocabulary. But
Mr. Hamasyan’s particular kind of nonstop rhythmic reshuffling seemed
his own.
Those who lost were piles of promise. Victor Gould, an 18-year-old
with a lovely, mysterious sense of time, drifted around “You and
the Night and the Music,” leaving phrases half-turned and drawing
out the house rhythm section, the bassist Rodney Whitaker and the
drummer Carl Allen, to help him finish phrases. Aaron Parks, 22,
who has been heard for four years in Mr.
Blanchard’s band, used strong arrangement ideas and leaned hard on
solo-piano performance to show the judges what he could do.
And Gerald Clayton from California, also 22 and the son of the bassist
John Clayton, came to destroy: his playing had huge, authoritative
presence, an Oscar Peterson-like style, highly controlled touch and
dynamics and rhapsodic, episodic soloing. (The audience broke into
applause during his solo.)
Had he won, it would have cast a different light on the whole
enterprise. Any musician can use the $20,000 prize money (half of it
earmarked for some kind of academic study), but Mr. Clayton seemed
fully formed.
Mr. Hamasyan was, excitingly, not.
At what point will jazz just crumble under the weight of the
glib encomiums paid to it? During Sunday night’s gala concert at
the Kennedy Center, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
talked about how “the power of jazz enhances our cultural diplomacy,”
and another former secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, theorized
that the qualities that made effective international relations were
“the same as those that create a good jazz band.”
On Thursday night, at a half-hour White House performance presented
by the institute, with the president and the first lady as hosts –
which will be seen in February on PBS – Laura Bush gave a speech about
jazz as “an American cultural treasure.” No art should have to live
up to such cliches.
Sunday’s concert included a short, tenebrous duet between Mr. Hancock
and Wayne Shorter, as well as a number by Mr. Blanchard’s students
from the Monk Institute graduate program, playing adventurously in
up-to-the-minute mainstream jazz idioms.
But the institute saves prime spots for showboaters who aren’t
necessarily jazz performers. Anita Baker, at Thursday night’s event,
sang “My Funny Valentine” before the president, and on Sunday Stevie
Wonder was awarded the institute’s Maria Fisher Founder’s Award for
public service. Flanked by Ms. Albright and Mr.
Powell – in the kind of surreal tableau this event provides annually –
Mr. Wonder dedicated the award to his mother. “I don’t think she was a
Republican,” he added, impulsively. “I’m just trying to keep it real.”
Then he performed a drawn-out version of the standard “Midnight Sun,”
playing harmonica and singing. The rest of the band was Mr. Hancock
on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Terri Lyne Carrington on drums and Mr.
Blanchard on trumpet. (Not bad.) But it became overly eccentric,
and Mr. Wonder tried some awkward scat singing; despite the booming
power of his voice, the performance fell apart.
The program for the finals competition and gala concert recycled
old news clips implying that record-company bidding wars follow the
announcement of the winner. This is not true: the bigger labels are
barely signing new jazz artists these days, and the excellent last
two winners, the singer Gretchen Parlato and the guitarist Lage Lund,
have yet to cut much of a profile.
But whatever happens to Mr. Hamasyan, the contest brought him around
people like the judges and the contest’s rhythm section, and brought
them around him.
That’s good enough.

LACHIN CORRIDOR CONFRONTS DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS
By Onnik Krikorian for Eurasianet
ISN, Switzerland
Tuesday, 19 September 2006
Following the 1994 Karabakh cease-fire agreement, Armenia experiences
difficulties in resettling the strategically important Lachin corridor,
which contains the road that connects Azerbaijan’s separatist republic
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.
The flag of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh flies
over the local administrative buildings in the center of Lachin,
the strategic lynchpin connecting the disputed territory with the
Republic of Armenia. The town and surrounding area, regarded as vital
for Karabakh’s security, appear to be experiencing an unsettling
demographic shift.
Over the past 14 years, Lachin has been reshaped by the ebb and flow
of humanity. In May 1992, during the height of the Karabakh conflict,
Armenian forces captured Lachin. Typical of most military operations
against towns and villages during the war, buildings were razed and
entire populations forced to flee.
Accordingly, at least 20,000 Azerbaijanis and Kurds evacuated the
area when Armenian forces approached the town.
Armenians remained in possession of the Lachin corridor, renamed
Kashatagh, and several other Azerbaijani territories after the
signing of a Karabakh cease-fire in 1994. Shortly thereafter,
Armenia implemented a resettlement policy. Robert Matevosian,
head of the department of resettlement for the region, says that
the first Armenian arrivals came to the region out of a sense of
patriotism. These territories, “regardless of the consideration of
diplomats, must be inhabited by Armenians,” he says.
The official line is that most of the Lachin corridor’s new residents
are refugees and internally displaced persons. The situation on
the ground, however, suggests otherwise. It seems many of the new
arrivals were socially vulnerable families from towns and cities such
as Yerevan, Sisian, Jermuk and Gyumri in Armenia proper, as well as
from Karabakh itself.
They appear to have been recruited to relocate with promises of land,
livestock and social benefits.
Gagik Kosakian, deputy governor of the region, has no choice but to
stick to the official line. But he does admit that others came as
well. “There are those specialists that couldn’t find work in their
chosen profession in Armenia who also come here to find employment,”
he says from his run-down and cramped office in downtown Lachin,
which Armenians have renamed Berdzor.
Varouzhan Grigoryan, 48, is one of those professionals who sought a new
start in Lachin. The economic chaos associated with the 1991 Soviet
collapse hit Grigoryan hard. In the late Soviet era, he operated his
own dance studio in the southern Armenian town of Sisian.
Yet, amid Armenia’s economic transition, he was forced to close his
business and seek other work.
Six years ago, he moved with his family to Lachin and now he teaches
traditional Armenian dance to school children in the town, while
living with his wife and five children in a newly renovated hostel on
the outskirts. With a combined income of 70,000 drams (about US$177)
a month in addition to 20,000 drams (about US$50) in benefits for his
five children, things are better than they had been in Armenia. He
also receives another 20,000 drams in disability allowances for his
two chronically ill sons.
But while life might be better for the Grigoryans, the situation is
very different for others. The Lachin corridor covers some 3,000 square
kilometers and stretches from just below Kelbajar in the north to the
Iranian border in the south. Yet, while Lachin’s pre-war [Azerbaijani]
population stood at well over 67,000, Kosakian puts the number of
[Armenian] settlers in the entire region (that also includes the
former Azerbaijani regions of Qubatli and Zangelan) at 9,800 people,
including 2,200 living in the town of Lachin itself.
Unofficial estimates, however, put the number far lower.
Because of poor social conditions, as well as a lack of investment
and the recent transfer of the regional budget from Armenia to the
Karabakh territorial government, both officials and activists in
Lachin say that many families are leaving. Indeed, while the region’s
population was estimated at 15,000 in 2002, there are concerns that
out-migration is now reaching epidemic proportions. Sources within the
local administration estimated the population to be in the 5,000-6,000
range in 2006.
In recent weeks, Armenian newspapers have reported that families living
in the territory are complaining that initial promises have been
broken. Moreover, while a budget estimated at 2.2 billion drams has
been allocated to Lachin, nobody in the administration appears to know
how the money is being spent. Benefits averaging 4,000 drams (about
US$10) per child a month on average are also reportedly paid late.
At the outset of 2006, an incentive for new settlers – the provision
of free electricity of up to 200 kw per month for the first two
years of residency – was rescinded. Meanwhile, there are questions
about misappropriations and malfeasance, including allegations that
of 750 million drams allocated for the construction of new homes,
only 50 million drams have actually been spent.
“I think that the Karabakh authorities have no real understanding of
the importance of this region,” laments Samuel Kocharian, Director
of the AGAPE Children’s Home in Lachin. He is also one of the most
vocal critics of the local administration as well as the transfer of
the Lachin corridor’s budget from Armenia to Karabakh. He estimates
the regional population now at approximately 5,000 people.
Marine Petoyan, head of the village of Karegah, located a few
kilometers outside of Lachin, touts her village as one of the most
successful in the region.
Nevertheless, she is concerned about the future.
“Sixty percent of residents don’t have water because of the drought,”
she says. “When the natural springs dried out, this became a serious
problem,” She also says that there are numerous cases of residents
in Karegah having their electricity cut off because they have been
unable to pay their bills.
Fears of a resumption of armed conflict between Armenians and
Azerbaijanis also seem to be influencing Lachin’s demographics. “The
process of resettlement started on a large scale at the beginning
because of patriotism,” says Kocharian, “but now [Lachin] is emptying
with the same enthusiasm and on the same scale. When people heard
[Armenian Defense Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan say on television:
“‘People, is Aghdam ours? Do you want another war?’ they were worried.”
Robert Matevosian does not deny that there has been an exodus in recent
years. While not disputing the allegations and articles published in
the Armenian media, he nonetheless reacts angrily to them. “If these
reports do not result in changes here, they will do more harm than
good,” he says. “Already they are having a negative effect.”
“These articles do raise various issues that are of concern,
and that do exist here,” he admits. “These problems have affected
resettlement. […] Our officials and national [political] parties
need to think about elaborating a strategic plan for this region.”
But with the international community still pushing for a Karabakh
peace agreement, few believe any national plan of action will
surface. Samuel Kocharian, for example, doesn’t. Indeed, he even
wonders if the situation is one by design. “How wide do they want
the Lachin corridor to be?” he asked rhetorically.

PENANG’S E&O HOTEL AN HISTORIC HOLDOUT ON MODERNIZING ISLAND
By Julia Yeow
Raw Story, MA
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday September 19, 2006
By Julia Yeow, Penang, Malaysia- Set in the backdrop of increasingly
modern surroundings, the white-washed walls of one of South-East
Asia’s oldest hotels still oozes with the grandeur of old-world
charm and the hint of its rich colonial past. The majestic Eastern &
Oriental Hotel, or known as the E&O, is hard to miss in Malaysia’s
northern bustling state of Penang with its multi-paneled glass doors,
Moorish minarets and a large, domed lobby.
Favoured as a weekend hangout for both locals and foreigners at its
pub, the hotel, which comes with a built-in opulent 400-seater grand
ballroom and majestic sea-front lawn, is in itself a part of the
colourful colonial history of the island state.
Built in 1885 by four Armenian brothers, the E&O is one of the oldest,
thriving hotels in the region where guests are greeted by bell-boys
dressed in khaki-coloured shorts and cone-shaped hard hats.
The Sarkies brothers, known back then for their taste for high society
living, were also responsible for later establishing neighbouring
Singapore’s Raffles Hotel, The Strand in Rangoon (now Yangon) and
the Mandarin Oriental Majapahit in Indonesia.
“It’s like staying in a part of history itself,” said Amanda Wells,
34, a hotel guest from Australia.
Pain-staking efforts to maintain and preserve the original structure
of the E&O has been made by all of its owners, with the last major
refurbishment in 1996 taking five years and more than 100 million
ringgit (27 million dollars) in renovations costs.
“Every effort has been made to keep the authenticity of the hotel,
even to the detail of original designs of light switches,” said
Elizabeth Dass, who heads the E&O’s communication department.
“Our guests will feel that time just stands still, and one can actually
feel the grandeur and magnificence of the hotel’s wondrous days of
the later 1890s,” said Dass.
But old-world charm doesn’t come cheap.
Guests can choose from any one of the hotel’s 99 suites, which also
come equipped with modern comforts of life such as wireless broadband
internet service, but must be willing to fork out anything from 203
dollars a night, to a whopping 3,244 dollars.
“The hotel caters to the demands of the more affluent traveler,
as it did even when it first opened,” said a hotel staff.
But while the high price tag has failed to deter guests, new government
development policies are threatening to phase out the popularity and
even existence of old-world attractions like the E&O.
Eager to capitalize on a booming population and economy, the government
has been aggressively developing new residential and commercial areas
around the island, sometimes at the expense of old and historical
buildings.
Critics have slammed the massive development as being “too fast-too
soon” and say that tourists have already begun to turn away.
“The deteriorating physical environment and the destruction of some of
Penang’s heritage sites has become more apparent in recent years,” said
Ronald Ng, a local resident involved in non-governmental organizations
lobbying for the preservation of historical sites.
“Throw in the poor public transport system, worsening traffic
congestion, flash floods and air pollution, and it’s easy to see why
we’re losing tourists,” Ng told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
“Penang has always been an attraction to tourists because of our rich
colonial heritage. We’re slowly losing that because there hasn’t been
much effort to retain the old,” said a local tour agent.
According to official statistics, the occupancy rate at Penang’s
famous beach hotels as well as city hotels have been plunging in the
past five years.
Visitor arrivals fell from 3.8 million in 2000, to just under 3.0
million in 2003, while the amount of foreign tourists dipped from 62
per cent from the total to a mere 38 per cent.
Last year, tourist arrivals went up just slightly to 3.06 million –
40 per cent of whom were foreigners – as a result of a Heritage Trail
campaign promoting several historical sites in the state including
centuries-old temples and buildings like the E&O.
The small progress has sparked hope among local tourism agencies and
raised awareness of the need to conduct balanced development in the
state, said Ng.
“Places like the E&O are a reminder of our rich history.
“We will be losing more than just tourists if we leave these priceless
parts of our heritage unprotected,” he said.

CSTO HOLDS WORKSHOP FOR JOURNALISTS
Kazinform, Kazakhstan
19.09.2006 / 11:19
MOSCOW. September 19, 2006. KAZINFORM /Valentina Yelizarova/ – In
Moscow on the basis of the Russian employee training and education
institute of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry is being conducted a
seminar for mass media of the member states of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Representatives of the leading mass media from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Byelorussia and Russia are taking part in it.
Kazinform Agency and Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper have received
invitations.
Such a seminar for mass media under the aegis of CSTO has been held
for the fourth time. It is aimed at giving a deep information course
for journalists who cover issues on antiterrorism protection, illegal
drug trade and illegal migration.
The program consists of theoretical and practical studies. CSTO Deputy
Secretary General Valery Semerikov and EurAsEC Deputy Secretary General
Bakhtiyar Urdashev participated in the opening ceremony of the seminar.

GERMAN WW2 EXPELLEES EXHIBITION ANGERS POLES
Expatica, Netherlands
News And Information For Expats
In Germany – 19 September 2006
The issue of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe after WW2 is
controversial, and a new exhibition in Berlin has received heated
criticism from Poland.
Clive Freeman visits ‘Forced Paths.’
The exhibition documents the fates of German expellees from
Eastern Europe Wilfried Rogasch stands in the foyer of Berlin’s
Kronprinzenpalais shaking his head in disbelief at the hostile
reactions in Poland to the exhibition he has organised.
Entitled “Erzwungene Wege – Flucht und Vertreibung im Europa des
20. Jahrhunderts” (“Forced Paths – Flight and Expulsion in Europe
During the 20th Century”), the exhibition fills three rooms of the
newly revamped Palais building on Berlin’s landmark street Unten
den Linden, and depicts the plight of millions of European refugees,
among them many Germans, who either fled or were expelled from their
homes at the end of World War II.
In the biggest hall, nine mass expulsion episodes get pin-pointed,
ranging from the Armenian massacres in 1915 to the German persecution
of the Jews between 1933-45, and the ethnic cleansing terror in
Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s.
Under fire
When it opened on 11 August, the Polish government and a large section
of the Polish media were quick to criticise it.
I am disappointed. I saw myself as a bridge-builder between Germany and
Poland, not as a trouble-maker. – exhibition organiser Wilfried Rogasch
“All expulsions and flights linked to the Second World War and post-war
resettlements are a painful and dramatic consequence of Hitler’s
attack on Poland and Europe. This must be remembered,” Archbishop
Jozef Michalik, chairman of the Polish Episcopal Conference, said.
He added that it must be kept in mind that German expellees’ leader
Erika Steinbach herself was born in a town near Gdansk in Nazi-occupied
Poland as the daughter of a soldier who willingly served in Adolf
Hitler’s Nazi army.
Daniel Pawlowicz, an MP for the nationalist League of Polish Families
(LPR), urged Poland’s foreign ministry to “react strongly” to the
exhibition, saying its treatment of ethnic German expellees falsified
history. The LPR is the junior partner in Poland’s governing coalition.
Pawlowicz added that the Polish government must always react in
similar cases and “show the lines” that Germans may not cross.
Warsaw’s mayor Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz even cancelled plans to visit
Berlin, telling Poland’s TVN 24 news channel that his visit to Berlin
could be misinterpreted in Poland and exploited.
Judged too soon
However Rogasch told Deutsche Presse-Agentur he was surprised by the
“hysterical reaction” in Poland.
“Even without seeing the contents of the show the Polish premier,
foreign minister and culture minister had decided it was, anti-Polish,”
he said.
At the heart of the current dispute is a campaign spearheaded by German
expellee groups aimed at creating a centre in Berlin remembering the
mass expulsions of 12-14 million ethnic Germans from several countries
of Eastern Europe after World War 11.
Rogasch frankly concedes that the Berlin exhibition, which lasts for
three months, is the “first step towards a permanent documentation
centre here in Berlin.”
There has been a fiery debate over such plans, with German Nobel
Literature Prize winner Guenter Grass – himself now in the news over
his admission he was a teenage member of the wartime Waffen SS –
warning three years ago that the creation of a centre in Berlin would
open old wounds with Germany’s eastern neighbours.
Returned loans
All expulsions and flights linked to the Second World War and post-war
resettlements are a painful and dramatic consequence of Hitler’s attack
on Poland and Europe. This must be remembered. – Polish archbishop
Jozef Michalik As a result of the controversy caused by the current
exhibition, Rogasch said he had returned several exhibition art loans
back to Poland in order, as he put it, to “avoid curators there any
possible embarrassment.”
He added: “It was my decision. They did not ask that l should do
so. So, yes, I am disappointed. I saw myself as a bridge-builder
between Germany and Poland, not as a trouble-maker.”
The curator also praised several Polish museums for “standing firm”
during a trying period.
“Pressure has been put on these institutions by the (Polish)
government, and by a large proportion of the Polish press,” he claimed.
“I find this quite outrageous in a country which belongs to the
European Union, and in which scientific and cultural institutions
should be independent of the prevailing government.
“We are all members of the International Council of Museums, which
is a part of UNESCO. As such, museums should be able to decide freely
with whom they co-operate and to whom they send loans.
Traumatic experiences
What is your opinion of ‘Forced Paths’? Write to feedback
@expatica.com.Rogasch says while the Berlin exhibition involves
the fate of 12- 14 million German refugees who either fled or were
ousted from their homes in Poland, Czechoslovakia and several other
countries in eastern Europe after World War II, it also clearly
defines the traumatic experiences of millions of other expellees from
other countries.
Supporters of the centre, like German Expellees’ leader Erika
Steinbach, who is a CDU deputy, argue that it would serve as a warning
against future expulsions.
To its advocates, the centre is deemed a natural development, an effort
to remember and understand an often forgotten fact: that, in the two
years after Germany’s World War II defeat in 1945, millions of ethnic
Germans were forced to leave countries where they and their ancestors
had lived, in some cases for centuries, and resettle in Germany itself.
Unease
But in Poland, such talk provokes considerable uneasiness. Most
critics in Poland worry the planned Berlin centre could be misused by
historical revisionists to marginalize or cast aside Nazi Germany’s
responsibility for the colossal civilian suffering which occurred
during the Second World War.
Wladslaw Bartoszewski, an Auschwitz survivor and former Polish foreign
minister argues that if a centre is created then it should be located
in Wroclaw, which prior to World War II was for hundreds of years
the German city of Breslau.
Wroclaw was almost entirely destroyed during the war, when it was
bombarded and eventually over-run by Soviet troops after a desperate
14 week German defence that lasted until four days after the fall of
Berlin in the spring of 1945.
Subsequently it became a classic “refugee city.” Those who settled in
Wroclaw after the war were Polish refugees from the eastern city of
Lvov, which at the end of World War II became Soviet Ukraine’s Lviv,
where mainly ethnic Ukrainians resettled.
Documenting history
Warsaw mayor cancels Berlin trip over refugee exhibition Polish
archbishop criticises Berlin exhibition Poland demands return of bell
from exhibition Rogasch, who has made numerous visits to museums
in Poland in recent years for talks with fellow curators, insists
that Germany has since the 1939-45 conflict worked painstakingly at
documenting the “outrageous criminal aspects of Germany’s history.”
“Now,” he says, “this country has every right to focus on groups
whose German members were also victims 60 years ago. Now they are
in their 70s or 80s. Then, they were children. So they would neither
have voted for Hitler or known anything about the concentration camps.”
“We cannot deny such groups their personal right to remember that
they were victims – victims of Nazi dictatorship and also of Stalinist
expansionism.”

ULTRA THIN MODELS ABOUND AS LONDON FASHION WEEK OPENS
International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Published: September 18, 2006
LONDON Ultra-thin models swaggered down the catwalk at London’s Fashion
Week on Monday, opening the glitzy event with a clear rejection
of arguments that waiflike young women should not be permitted to
showcase designs.
Despite a ban on super skinny models imposed by Spanish organizers
at their fashion week in Madrid, slinky women in London were ready
to flaunt the spring and summer collections of designers like Julien
Macdonald, John Rocha and Zandra Rhodes.
A-list stars including Beyonce and Alicia Keys are expected to attend
the Emporio Armani catwalk show on Thursday. U2’s Bono will be on hand
to help launch Armani’s Red collection, which will give a portion of
its profits to help fight AIDS in Africa.
The event, which runs through Friday, has long been known as a venue
for seeing cutting-edge work from creative, young British designers,
while the big fashion houses tend to showcase their wares in New York,
Paris or Milan.
This year, though, there is an air of excitement around the
spring/summer collections from designers including Jasper Conran,
Paul Smith and Betty Jackson, and new talents such as 23-year-old
Christopher Kane.
“We are not a traditional capital for fashion, but we are a very
creative crucible,” said Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion
Council, which organizes London’s twice-yearly Fashion Week.
At one of the opening shows on Monday, Paris-based Garen Demerdjian,
a Lebanese-Armenian designer, presented a layered look with shorts
and skirts over long leggings, high cinched belts and leather jackets.
His models, stone-faced with tangled hair, walked slowly down the
catwalk sporting hues of brown, green, apricot, black and silky white
amid flashing lights and trance-like music.
Later, John Rocha presented a collection of cropped cargo pants,
silk shirts and parkas in shades of black, ivory, stone and khaki.
On Tuesday, designer Bella Freud is relaunching iconic 1960s label
Biba, pioneer of kaftans and flamboyant scarves.
A debate over whether models are too thin has raised the profile of
Fashion Week in the headlines, with a government minister’s calls to
follow Madrid’s lead and ban extremely thin models from the catwalk.
“The fashion industry’s promotion of beauty as meaning stick thin
is damaging to young girls’ self image and to their health,” Culture
Secretary Tessa Jowell said Saturday.
Rose dismissed calls for a ban as “a knee-jerk reaction,” but said
the debate was a legitimate one and he would discuss the issue with
colleagues.
Fashion Week canceled its opening photo shoot to avoid giving the
issue more publicity.
Madrid’s Fashion Week, the Pasarela Cibeles, announced last week it
was banning models with a Body Mass Index, or height to weight ratio,
below 18.
A 5-foot-9 (175-centimeter) model weighing 125 pounds (57 kilograms)
would have a BMI of 18.
“I think that it’s a debate that will happen all in good time, and
all opinions are welcome,” supermodel Erin O’Connor said at the show
in west London.
Top model Kate Moss added star power by sitting front row at a
pre-event fashion show for British retailer Topshop on Sunday,
alongside its billionaire owner Philip Green.
___
On the Net:
___
Associate d Press Writer Jessica Gearhart in London contributed to
this report.
LONDON Ultra-thin models swaggered down the catwalk at London’s Fashion
Week on Monday, opening the glitzy event with a clear rejection
of arguments that waiflike young women should not be permitted to
showcase designs.
Despite a ban on super skinny models imposed by Spanish organizers
at their fashion week in Madrid, slinky women in London were ready
to flaunt the spring and summer collections of designers like Julien
Macdonald, John Rocha and Zandra Rhodes.
A-list stars including Beyonce and Alicia Keys are expected to attend
the Emporio Armani catwalk show on Thursday. U2’s Bono will be on hand
to help launch Armani’s Red collection, which will give a portion of
its profits to help fight AIDS in Africa.
The event, which runs through Friday, has long been known as a venue
for seeing cutting-edge work from creative, young British designers,
while the big fashion houses tend to showcase their wares in New York,
Paris or Milan.
This year, though, there is an air of excitement around the
spring/summer collections from designers including Jasper Conran,
Paul Smith and Betty Jackson, and new talents such as 23-year-old
Christopher Kane.
“We are not a traditional capital for fashion, but we are a very
creative crucible,” said Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion
Council, which organizes London’s twice-yearly Fashion Week.
At one of the opening shows on Monday, Paris-based Garen Demerdjian,
a Lebanese-Armenian designer, presented a layered look with shorts
and skirts over long leggings, high cinched belts and leather jackets.
His models, stone-faced with tangled hair, walked slowly down the
catwalk sporting hues of brown, green, apricot, black and silky white
amid flashing lights and trance-like music.
Later, John Rocha presented a collection of cropped cargo pants,
silk shirts and parkas in shades of black, ivory, stone and khaki.
On Tuesday, designer Bella Freud is relaunching iconic 1960s label
Biba, pioneer of kaftans and flamboyant scarves.
A debate over whether models are too thin has raised the profile of
Fashion Week in the headlines, with a government minister’s calls to
follow Madrid’s lead and ban extremely thin models from the catwalk.
“The fashion industry’s promotion of beauty as meaning stick thin
is damaging to young girls’ self image and to their health,” Culture
Secretary Tessa Jowell said Saturday.
Rose dismissed calls for a ban as “a knee-jerk reaction,” but said
the debate was a legitimate one and he would discuss the issue with
colleagues.
Fashion Week canceled its opening photo shoot to avoid giving the
issue more publicity.
Madrid’s Fashion Week, the Pasarela Cibeles, announced last week it
was banning models with a Body Mass Index, or height to weight ratio,
below 18.
A 5-foot-9 (175-centimeter) model weighing 125 pounds (57 kilograms)
would have a BMI of 18.
“I think that it’s a debate that will happen all in good time, and
all opinions are welcome,” supermodel Erin O’Connor said at the show
in west London.
Top model Kate Moss added star power by sitting front row at a
pre-event fashion show for British retailer Topshop on Sunday,
alongside its billionaire owner Philip Green.

VATICAN: POPE’S VISIT TO TURKEY TAKES SHAPE
AKI, Italy
Sep-19-2006 09:04 am
Istanbul, 18 Sept. (AKI) – As Benedict XVI’s controversial remarks
linking Islam and violence continue to reverberate around the Muslim
world, his planned three-day visit to Turkey at the end of November
has begun to take shape. The schedule of the visit is not yet clear,
but the pope’s fist meeting is expected to be with Turkey’s president,
Ahmet Necdet Sezer – who invited him to visit.
During the 28-30 November visit – his first to the overwhelmingly
Muslim country since becoming pope in April last year – the pontiff
is also expected to visit the site of Virgin Mary’s alleged tomb
at Ephesus, near the western coastal city of Izmir. From there he
will travel to Istanbul to attend on 30 November the Saint Andres
feast in the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Church and to meet with the
Orthodox patriarch Bartholomeos and Armenian patriarch, Mesrob II –
the two leaders of Turkey’s Christian community.
It is not yet clear whether the Pope will meet with the head of
the Turkish Religious Directorate, (the country’s highest religious
institution), Ali Bardakoglu. Directorate officials are allegedly
saying that if a ‘religious’ meeting is scheduled to be held
during Benedict XVI’s visit, it should take place in the Religious
Directorate’s headquarters in Ankara. If the meeting is deemed a
‘political’ one however, the Religious Directorate officials will
not attend.
Muslims (mostly Sunnis) form an estimated 99.8 percent of Turkey’s 70
million population, while Christians and Jews account for 0.2 percent.

BENEDICT’S EGG
By: Roderick T. Beaman
Ether Zone, IL
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The Truth Doesn’t Make Them Free
Pope Benedict XVI’s quote of a medieval ruler who stated that Muhammad
and Islam had brought “evil and inhuman” things to the world has
raised rankles throughout the Islamic world.
Islamic believers are so horrified at it that they are burning churches
and shot one 60 year-old Italian nun in the back.
I have read only excerpts from the words of The Prophet Muhammad and
Islamic scripture and although those excerpts may have been carefully
selected to prove a writer’s viewpoint there is little doubt that
there is a far higher incidence of exhortations to violent vengeance
threaded throughout Islamic scripture than in Christian scripture.
I know of only two references to violence in the New Testament. In
one, Jesus states that he does not wish to bring peace but discord
between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters-in-law, etc. He knew
his message It’s been explained as the disagreement that his message
would engender. The second is where Paul states that if the arm is the
problem, cut it off and if the eye is, gouge it out. Neither concerns
retribution against nonbelievers. They are far fewer than the many
that I have read from The Qur’an and other Muslim sacred scriptures.
It is especially telling to examine the methods of conversion to
Christianity vs. Islam. The term Dar-al-Islam means an area where
Islam has triumphed, Dar-al-Harb refers to areas in the midst of
conquest and Dar-al-Suhl means areas yet to be conquered. This
should not bring comfort to nonbelieiver, infidels as they call
them. Dar-al-Salam refers also to the government, not necessarily
that all within are Muslim.
Christianity was expanded through persuasion. To achieve Dar-al-Islam,
it is not necessary that all within become Muslims. Rather, the entire
government and society are according to Islamic scripture. Often,
infidels are accorded secondary citizenship and have no choice but
to live according to Islamic law, under which conversions to other
religions are capital crimes! It’s like what’s ours is ours; what’s
yours is negotiable.
Muslims claim that ‘Islam’, means peace, however others translate it
as submission, authoritarian flavored. What happens if one doesn’t
submit? History suggests the sword is the alternative.
Most of what today is Islamic, was once Christian, primarily
Catholic. Christianity originally dominated most of the Mideast and
North Africa. The apostles went to Europe through Rome, and from
Judea across northern Africa and north into what is today Asia Minor
and Armenia. St. Thomas brought Christianity east into Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan and even India. In 1498, Portuguese explorers found
Christians on the west coast of today’s India who traced their
conversion to St. Thomas.
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, today’s Annaba, Algeria, is one of
the most important theologians in western history. His book, The City
of God, was fundamental to the development of Christian theology and
is cited by Catholic and Calvinist authorities.
Indeed, it would be nigh impossible to be able to speak with any
authority on Christianity without a thorough understanding of that
epochal book.
Today, The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria is Islamic and
has fewer than 60,000 Christians out of a population of nearly
28,000,000. Most are likely descendants of French, Spanish, Maltese
and other Christians who fled after independence from France in
1962. It is highly unlikely that they are descendants of original
Christians who resisted conversion under the Berbers. Christianity
was the dominant faith before Muhammad.
I was taught in Catholic grammar school that most of the conversions
from Christianity were under threat of violence. As biased as those
teachings may have been, history supports that conclusion. Muslim
hordes swept east, west and northwest threatening to overrun all of
Europe. They were stopped only in the Balkans and in Southern France
in 732, by Charles Martel. The Mediterranean was in danger of becoming
an Islamic lake, as it had once been Roman. That threat was one of the
reasons that Pope Urban II called for the Crusades to drive back the
Muslim hordes. The onslaught of those hordes was part of the reason
for the Crusades. Christianity’s very survival was at stake.
Another reason was to make The Holy Land safe for Christian pilgrims
who were being harassed and killed.
A muslim caliph had ordered the destruction of The Church of The
Holy Sepulchre in The Holy Land and a hospice for Christian pilgrims
looted. It would be analogous for a Christian ruler to destroy The
Great Mosque in Mecca and deny Muslims access to Mecca and Medina.
It took several hundred years to drive the Moors out of Iberia. Islam
left its imprint on Spanish and Portuguese art, architecture, music
and even language.
Fatima is an arabic word. Later, Islam attempted another conquest
only to be stopped at Vienna in the seventeenth century.
During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, American Christian military
personnel could not have services if stationed in Arabia. Then there
was the fatwa placed upon Salman Rushdie for his satire of Muhammad.
Islamic tolerance and peace?
Personally, I believe that Islam is a false religion of a false prophet
and Muhammad may even be the false prophet that the scriptures warned
against. Islam is an entire social prescription, unlike Christianity
and far more than even the most extreme Jewish sects such as the
Hassids.
I have known several Muslims over the years. Most seem like decent,
peace-loving people. Some have not. But nevertheless, it is a religion
with a constant thread that advocates violence to further its ends.
It is a religion that emphasizes the possibilities of great rewards and
pleasures in the afterlife for martyrdom. With 1.5 billion adherents,
all its leaders need is to convince a very small fraction of them for a
series of horrors to be unleashed on the world. With the acceleration
of violence in recent years, exemplified by 9/11, there is a very
strong possibility that this is the beginning of a third attempt to
bring the world into Dar-al-Islam.
The Pope has not apologized for his remarks, nor should he. He was
quoting someone else. The truth remains as the truth but this may
unleash more than anyone has thought possible as often as has happened
throughout history. This despite The Vatican having been critical of
the war in Iraq. Gratitude may not count for much in Islam.
The assaults this time around, however, will not be simply from without
but compounded by the millions of Muslims who will undoubtedly be
sources for fifth columns throughout Western Europe. Germany, Italy
and France all have substantial Muslim minorities, as does America,
and in many cases they are poor and uneducated, the most vulnerable
to all extremism, especially religious. It is further compounded
by demographics.
The fertility rate of native Germans is currently below replacement
level and Italy’s is not much better. Immigrant populations throughout
Europe, just as in the United States, have some reproductive rates
far higher than natives, partly due to generous subsidies. The specter
of Muslim majorities in many formerly Christian countries is very real.
Hold onto your hats. This could be a very rough ride, compounded by
the coming economic collapses in the West.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with
this notice and hyperlink intact.”

FEATURE: SOUTH AMERICAN HIGHS, LOWS
Lucy Craymer
Hawke’s Bay Today, New Zealand
Tue, 19 Sep. 2006
The Cooper family – Garth Cooper, who grew up in Havelock North, wife
Sandra, six-year-old Nadine and five-year-old Frank – are 9 1/2months
into their holiday of a lifetime and they still have a way to go.
The Coopers are travelling through North and South America on Yamaha
XT600 and XT250 trail bikes. By the end of their ultra long-distance
road trip they will have visited 28 countries.
When Hawke’s Bay Today last caught up with them the family had
travelled through North Argentina and Brazil.
Garth said they had got back on the road after a good rest in Manaus,
Brazil, on the Amazon River – after team hair cuts and five hours
washing red clay off their clothes.
“We headed north towards Boa Visa through reserve Indigena Waimairi,
where you were not allowed to stop or take photos.
“It turned out a few years ago the Brazilian military and indigenous
people had a disagreement, which resulted in a shootout – 250-odd
Indians killed and 100-odd police. We didn’t stop or take photos.
“We did see a lot of toucans and macaws flying overhead in this
lush forest. Sandra’s bike left a trail of oil along the wet road –
an oil seal had come loose so it was easily fixed.
“Boa Vista was our last town in Brazil before crossing into Venezuela.”
Garth said it was easy to exit Brazil but going through Venezuelan
immigration was not so easy.
He said because they were locked in an office at lunchtime the kids had
started screaming and yelling, upsetting the immigration official,
who decided not to delay things and let them through as quickly
as possible.
In Venezuela they needed gas and although the petrol was cheap at
only four cents a litre but the queues were 500 metres long, he said.
“We couldn’t fill up our spare cans with petrol because it’s illegal
in Venezuela,” he said. “Sandra’s bike didn’t have enough range to
make the next station so I had to run petrol into my half-litre cooker
bottle, filling her tank half a litre at a time.”
Garth had problems seeing the point of it all, especially as Sandra’s
bike only holds seven litres, so they weren’t going to sell the extra
gas on the black market.
It was to be the first of many frustrations for the Coopers in
Venezuela as they felt everyone they met tried to short-change them
or make up a price.
“You couldn’t buy food, drink, oil or anything without being ripped
off,” he said.
“We found the place very dirty – there was rubbish all along the
roadsides, the beaches were covered in rubbish and even when we paid
to go to private beaches they were filthy.
“In the mountains, in the west of Venezuela, Sandra managed to run
over a stray dog which ran out in front of her. If that wasn’t bad
enough, 20 minutes later while Sandra was passing a car the driver
of the vehicle swerved across into her lane. He hit the luggage and
handle bars and pushed Sandra off the road. She almost crashed but
was able to regain control and come back onto the road.
“When we stopped in the next town, the car driver who had tried to
drive Sandra off the road caught up – he wanted money for the dent
in his door and a new wing mirror.”
Garth said he told the man they would not be paying because it was
his fault and the man let the matter drop.
Garth said although they did meet a couple of nice people Venezuela,
was the biggest disappointment of the trip and they were glad to
leave with all their property intact. Colombia, however, proved a
surprise – packed with interesting tourist sights and experiences,
along with really friendly people.
“The border crossing into Colombia turned into a nightmare,” he said.
“Immigration was finished within a minute but the bikes took eight
hours in very hot conditions, with very hot and grumpy kids to be
processed through customs.”
The police and customs officers fed and gave them drinks. Garth said
the customs officers’ job would have been on the line if they had
acted without authority.
“We did finally convince the person in charge, who was on the phone,
to let their officer fill in our customs document so we could leave.”
The following day the Coopers were looking at a map in Cucuta on the
roadside when a family in a car stopped to help. They ended up going
back to the family’s house for the night and cruising the town in a
’50s Chevrolet truck.
The city was modern, with every convenience on hand.
>>From Cucuta, the Coopers headed south toward the capital, Bogota,
passing through many beautiful colonial towns in the high Andes
mountains.
He said they saw many farmers working the fields by hand or with the
assistance of oxen.
“Mules in big trains carried loads of sugar cane down to the sugar
mills kilometres away,” Garth said. In Colombia, they still used
traditional methods in a modern environment and it had been great to
see both working side by side.
The Coopers encountered many heavily armed military checkpoints on
the road but found the soldiers pleasant.
“Our route south took us through the towns of Chinocarta, Bucaramanga,
San Gill, Satamarchan to Zipaquira, which is famous for its underground
salt cathedral, which is 180 metres underground,” he said.
“It was a great sight and, once again one, of the guides put us up
in his family home for the night.”
Garth said the home had a big courtyard surrounded by all the rooms.
Bogota proved a big, bustling city, which was in the process of
being modernised.
It had an amazing bus system running down the middle of the
roadways. It was the rainy season in Bogota, water half-a-metre deep
was running swiftly down the streets, and cars were being spun around
from the current.
Garth said he was thankful they had left their bikes at the Yamaha
shop and caught a taxi to their hotel.
“We visited the old town and gold museum, which was wonderful, even
though there was heavy rain. We left Bogota after a TV interview for
a motorcycle programme.”
The television crew were amazed that the Coopers were planning to
travel from one end of South America to the top of Alaska with a five
and six-year-old.
“We still find it hard to believe ourselves,” Garth admitted.
“From Bogota, we headed south through Guamo, Espaina, Ibague, crossing
the high Andes mountains to Armenia.
“The trip over the mountains was amazing, as far as the scenery
went. We were in the clouds or above them on several occasions.”
The military presence was greater in the mountains because it is from
there that the guerilla army and paramilitary operate.
Garth said the military were in light armoured vehicles and had
sophisticated weapons.
“We passed through loads of coffee plantations and longed to sample
some of the famous product,” he said.
“There were also many sugar plantations along the way down to Cali.”
As the Coopers travelled through Cali, another TV channel filmed them
from inside a moving vehicle as they rode through town.
“It was a hoot as the camera man jumped out at the traffic lights to
get a better angle, filming us before we had an interview on the road
side,” Garth said.

ELBRUS SPEED RACE RESULTS ARE IN: DENIS URUBKO WINNER AT 3 HOURS 55 MIN!
Mounteverest, NY
08:07 pm EST Sep 18, 2006
It’s no chance that Denis Urubko has climbed 10, 8000ers without O2
including new routes on BP and Manaslu. Four days back Urubko proved
his skill. Image courtesy of RussianClimb.com
Luck can create success but not excellence. Repeated success is not
a sign of repeated luck – but of mastery.
It’s no chance that Denis Urubko has climbed 10, 8000ers without O2
including new routes on BP and Manaslu. Four days back Urubko proved
his skill again – this time on Elbrus: Denis not only won the extreme
class (Azau 2400 m – Elbrus West Top 5642 m) 2006 race, but at 3 hours
55 and minutes he also beat the 2005 record (4 hours and 10 minutes).
Fastest Snow Leopard wins Classic race, Space engineer climbs 2000
meters under 5 hours
In the classic race (Garabashi, 3708 m – Elbrus West top 5642 m),
Andrey Puchinin won at 2:46:09. No wonder perhaps:
Hoping to become the first speed Snow Leopard in one season, Andrey
Puchinin started his quest on Peak Lenin July 16, topping out the
next day at 2 pm.
August 7, he did Korzhenevskaya peak BC to summit in 8 hrs and 50
minutes. One week later, on August 14, Puchinin did Peak Communism
BC to summit in about 18 hrs. Next came a peak Korjenevskoy (7105 m)
round trip in only 14 hours and then Andrey Puchinin set out from BC
and summited Khan Tengri shortly after lunch. After Pobeda Puchinin
ran straight for Elbrus – and up in less than 3 hours…
Among other favorites: Just back from his no O2/no sherpas Everest
attempt, Gagarin’s former space engineer and 7-time Snow Leopard
Boris Korshunov 71 finished the classic race at just under 5 hours
(4:58:10)! Perhaps he even made it back for the Soyuz rocket launch
carrying Anousheh Ansari – which took off from Kazakhstan today!
Lena from RussianClimb reports that the race was very interesting
and promises a story soon. Meanwhile, check out all the results at
RussianClimb.com
Denis Urubko (Almaty) is one of the strongest high mountaineers in
Kazakhstan. He has climbed 10, 8000ers without O2 including a new
route on BP in alpine style in 2005 (nominated for Golden Ice Axe)
and a new route on Manaslu in 2006. Denis has won several speed
climbing competitions including the Khan Tengri (7010 m) speed race
in 2000 (7 hours 40 minutes to summit and 12 hours 21 minutes for
the entire climb).
Mount Elbrus (5642 m), located in northern Caucasus (Russia) is the
highest peak in the European continent. These days, Elbrus biggest
fame comes from being one of the ‘Seven Summits’.
Elbrus belongs to the Caucasus (or “Kavkaz” meaning ‘more than
mountains’), mountain range. This mighty range links the Caspian
Sea to the Black Sea, and creates the natural boundary between the
mountains of Russia and the southern states of Azerbaydzhani, Georgia
and Armenia. Mt. Elbrus, the pinnacle of this 700-mile stretch,
has long been a distinguished climbing center for the European and
Russian climbing communities. Elbrus can easily be seen from most
of the high passes in the area and is a traditional climb for those
looking to ascend above 18,500ft.