173개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Following article was published yesterday in the German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel:
HOLIDAY WITH THE FAR RIGHT
German Neo-Nazis in Paradise
Germany's far-right NPD party is expanding its influence even in holiday retreats like the Baltic Sea resort Usedom. Some locals are concerned that this could mean the end of a tourism boom for the idyllic coastal region. But no one likes to talk openly about the problem or its causes, and a climate of fear has seized the residents.
Jutta Arnold gets nervous every time she thinks of the coming season. She should have a dream job: She's Usedom's hotel director and regional head of the German Hotel and Gastronomy Association. Business is good. With its renovated Wilhelminian luxury hotels, gorgeous promenades and long white beaches, the Baltic Sea island lures more and more tourists every year to Germany's remote northeastern corner. At least until now.
After regional elections almost three weeks ago, Germany's far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) celebrated a fresh success on this island. The NPD won 7.3 percent of the vote across the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but in most villages on Usedom it won just over 10 percent; and now the island's tourism industry fears tourists may decide to go elsewhere next summer.
"To be perfectly honest, the election results will only harm tourism," says Arnold. "That's why I don't understand how people here could vote for the extreme right. We're shooting ourselves in the foot."
Meanwhile, the NPD has learned to deal with the accusation that it scares off tourists. "Tourists welcome, asylum-swindlers out!" say posters still attached to street lights after the election. Arnold knows from experience that those are hollow words. A dark-skinned visitor was recently accosted, she says -- at least one particular tourist was not welcome. "Either I've misunderstood something here," Arnold says about the NPD slogan, "or the NPD has." She candidly admits, "We can only protect our guests on the hotel premises."
What makes Jutta Arnold special is that she'll talk about the danger from the right. Granted, it's part of her job description as a tourism functionary. But an open-mouthed policy on neo-Nazis is nevertheless not typical on the island of Usedom.
The NPD taboo
Many passers-by here would simply rather not discuss it. Some do, then ask not to be named. Others speak fairly openly, give their names, then send pleading e-mails days later: For God's sake, please don't quote me!
What's going on? How great must the fear in Usedom be for so many to fall silent?
Those who speak anonymously about the far right don't admit to voting NPD. No one does: That's the first realization. The second is that almost everybody has some sympathy for NPD voters. They're going against the "established parties," people say. The third is that one often hears the claim that the right-wingers aren't causing problems. "They're always well-dressed, they greet you, and they behave themselves."
In Usedom, such well-bred right-wing extremists made the headlines when they assaulted a group of school kids on a camping trip. Six years ago, a homeless man was beaten to death in Ahlbeck. Today, seniors sitting on a park bench in Ahlbeck let the turbulent holiday life pass them by as they say-again, anonymously-that the incident was the work of hooligans, who can be found anywhere and not just in Ahlbeck. The NPD is a different story, though; they are a legitimate political party.
Ahlbeck, Bansin and Heringsdorf are Western Pomerania's three bath resorts from Germany's imperial era, built as majestic summer retreats. Tourists lounge around here in the white sand, eat ice cream, buy amber souvenirs, and enjoy the idyll of beach life on the Baltic Sea. It is here of all places that these tourists now have to grapple with how the NPD has become so popular right in the middle of mainstream society. An East German couple from Bernau near Berlin tries to explain it this way: "One can understand that the people here would vote out of protest." The two tourists do not get any more specific, saying only that people in Western Pomerania have ample reason to complain, despite the fact that "it's much worse with the foreigners" in West Germany.
Bleak winters in the village
A more complete answer to the question of the NPD's rise in popularity can be found beyond the city's promenades, where the holiday paradise ends and a very different region starts. Life here grows especially gray during the winter, when seasonal workers are unemployed. The hinterlands of Usedom can be very bleak, to say nothing of the mainland.
So bleak, in fact, that the NPD could count on a measure of success with its massive and expensive ad campaign. Western Pomerania is among Germany's least-developed states. It's marked by high unemployment and a rural population that "has always been kinda simple," as one man here put it (again, anonymously). Ideal conditions for a party whose most prominent members come from the west in order to win power using equally simple phrases.
"Preserve local schools. Rap the knuckles of fat cats!" an NPD placard demands. This is not really objectionable in and of itself, says Lars Bergemann, the party whip for the left-wing Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS): "The NPD is not stupid. It reads people's lips and has understood how to skillfully address their needs. They have been successful, and we are left with hindsight."
The politician heads the district commission for youth welfare services and has a seat on the council against right-wing extremism. He's willing speak openly about the NPD, as he tries to explain the climate of fear that has spread throughout the region. "It's a big taboo. People don't trust each other," he says. Even obvious NPD supporters don't want to talk about their motives and the party. And since the extremists remain incognito, not even those who want to "work against this democratically" have the courage to come out of hiding. "To some extent this fear is justified, not so much because of the violence, but because it's easy to make a person's life hell in a village."
Bergemann assumes the NPD has a loyal following here. The election result "wasn't just out of protest. All you have to do is ask around." The NPD has taken hold "because the long-established parties have failed." It's not just Bergemann who says this out of a will to criticize; people say the same thing on the street. The NPD won because the other parties have done nothing.
A youth club here, a bonfire there -- little achievements earn the NPD credit. In Zirchow, near the middle of the island, a muscle-packed young man with a bald head claims that "over the past 15 years," people have tried every party. None did enough. "So they voted for the NPD, who doesn't do any less than the others." He voted for the Greens. "The fact that I am bald is purely a coincidence."
Another native who prefers to remain anonymous says that "half of the people stayed home because they were frustrated. The other half went to the polls for the exact same reason." Unmet expectations, palpable neglect -- these are the issues in Western Pomerania. "It's no solution that our youth has to go to Norway or Bavaria to find work," complains a Lassan woman. In this small village, the conservatives got 158 votes, the social democrats got 138, and the NPD got 129. "Someone has to take care of us."
The first NPD mayors?
Indeed, many people leave the region, above all the well-educated, the young, and the women. What remains are the old "and the young men with relatively meager educations. This is an ideal breeding ground for the NPD," the PDS politician Bergemann says.
Western Pomerania's problems are difficult to solve. On the one hand, there's uncertainty about the future and the social decline of the older generation, who lost their jobs after German reunification. On the other is the lack of prospects for a young generation of Germans who listen to right-wing identity-branding -- with words like 'pride' and 'honor' -- and whose self-esteem swells when large parts of society become afraid of them. The same principles are at work in urban street gangs -- but in the case of gangs, an organized party can't make political capital out of the kids.
Bergemann looks skeptically at the years ahead. The next election is scheduled for 2009. Mayoral and district executive positions will be at stake, and Bergemann fears that the NPD's current grassroots work will pay off. "In some villages, the NPD today already has 30 percent of the vote. It is possible that they will soon gain a foothold with mayoral positions," he says. "I am afraid of that."
Hotel director Jutta Arnold puts it this way: "If nothing happens, things will get bad for us. And as far as I can see, nothing is going to happen."
Propagandistic powerlessness
Anti-nazi poster in Erfurt(south-east Germany)
Korea Times'/한국일보 logo
No logo - just German reality
Today 16 years ago Germany was reunited.
Since that date in Germany, mainly in the eastern part, at least 135 people were killed because of racial or "ideological" - mainly people who were looking like "leftists"(for example punks or young men with long hair..) but also homeless or disabled people - motives by neo-nazis/fascists. Just four days after the re-unification the first men, a visitor from Poland, was killed near Berlin.
Already in the first days(end of 1989) of the demonstrations which led to the collapse of the East German/GDR(German Democratic Republic) regime neo-nazis started to hunt mainly young leftists/anti-fascists. About one of the most infamous mass attacks by German neo-nazis, but also "ordinary" people, against migrants I already wrote nearly four years ago here: http://base21.jinbo.net/christian/020913.html
Rostock 1992, migrants' house after neo-nazi attacks
Following story about one of the victims of racial violence in the reunited Germany was published some days ago in the German(bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel:
NOEL MARTIN'S FINAL STRUGGLE
Neo-Nazi Victim Battling to the Death
Noel Martin plans to take his own life in less than a year. Just over 10 years ago, a neo-Nazi attack left him paralyzed from the neck down. He plans to fight right-wing extremists to the very end.
Noel Martin has already chosen July 23, 2007 to be the day he dies. On that evening, his pulse will gradually slow down until it stops completely. He has decided to die as a result of a lethal blend of drugs -- administered in Switzerland by Dignitas, an organization that offers its clients medically assisted suicide.
Martin publicly announced his decision in June, 10 years after the attack that left him paralyzed and destroyed his will to live. He plans to celebrate his last birthday -- he'll be 48 -- and then drink the cocktail that will put him out of his misery.
He has 297 days left.
The attack occurred on June 16, 1996 in Mahlow, a town in the former East German state of Brandenburg where the dark-skinned, Jamaican-born Briton was employed as a construction worker. A stone crashed through the windshield of his car and Martin's car veered off the road. He remembers seeing a tree careening towards him and jerking the steering wheel.
And then, a thud. Darkness.
When Martin woke up, he was lying on his back. He heard a voice. "Can you feel my hand on your leg?" it asked him. "But you're not touching my leg," Martin replied.
"I am not a part of life. I just exist"
Two young Germans, Sandro R. and Mario P., had thrown a lump of concrete at Martin's car. They were 17 and 24 years old at the time and their motive was "explicit xenophobia," as a court later determined. They were sentenced to five and eight years in prison. Noel Martin never got an apology, but by now he doesn't care any more. "It would be a waste of time. God will take care of them," he says, "life will take care of them." Both of his attackers are now free. But Martin is still imprisoned -- in his own body.
The attack left Noel Martin paralyzed from the neck down. "I am not a part of life," he says, 10 years and three months later, "I just exist." At home in Birmingham, he leans his heavy head against the headrest of his giant wheelchair. He fixes his weary eyes on his interviewer. "Everything has to be figured out by your head. It's torture, mental torture," he sighs. Martin will never be able to move his arms or legs again and he'll never be able to feel what his fingertips touch. He'll never have sex again, never go to the toilet by himself. Nor will he ever feel his own heartbeat.
Martin feels comparatively happy this afternoon. He was up at 8:00 and it only took until noon for him to be washed, massaged, and dressed.
Mornings aren't always this easy. Sometimes his ulcers bleed and bleed, until his dark face goes ashen and his eyes fall shut from sheer exhaustion. Sometimes his nurses slap his face to wake him up again. They have to slap his face -- that's the only part of his body that Noel Martin can still feel.
Losing control of your body hurts
On this particular afternoon, the idea of death seems absurd. Warm rays of sun shine through the garden window, casting patterns of light on the living room carpet. He looks around at the gilt moulding between the high ceiling and the green walls, at the heavy wooden furniture, the red leather couch and his television. There's a little fire place built into one wall. His huge old desk is covered with photo albums and sheets of paper. Dozens of birthday cards line the cornice along the wall. The room is full of life. This is Martin's kingdom. This is where he spends almost every day.
His wheelchair is in the middle of the room. His nurses have dressed him in black trousers and a casual black sweater. His roundish paunch protrudes underneath the sweater. "I used to be fit," Martin says. "I used to run in the mornings. Then I would do sit-ups. I did kung-fu and boxing too." Today he's plagued by chills and hot flashes. His broad shoulders have gone slack. He still has some control over his right shoulder -- which allows him to operate his wheelchair with a joystick and use his phone. Apart from that, Martin needs the assistance of his eight nurses for everything else.
They keep an eye on him 24 hours a day. Even now, a small woman with a blonde ponytail is standing in the doorway. "Cath, give me some wine please," Martin says. The nurse reaches him a glass of chilled white wine. He drinks it through a straw. "Good. Give me a cigarette please," he says. Cathy puts one in his mouth and lights it. Martin takes a drag. Then Cathy removes the cigarette from his mouth -- until he wants to take another drag.
This constant dependence on other people is agony for Martin. "I can never be alone." The self-confident man suffers from his loss of control. Suddenly he twists his face into a grimace -- he can't stand it anymore. "Cath, scratch please." The nurse wipes his face with a towel. This will happen about 10 times before the afternoon is over.
"You can't suffer every day of your life"
Jacqueline, his strong-willed wife, used to take care of him. She died of cancer six years ago. Two days before she passed away, they married at Jacqueline's sickbed -- after having lived together for 18 years. Martin says he spent 36 hours with her after their marriage before she fell into a coma. "I miss her every day," he says. His voice, which normally sounds so resolute, cracks. He can see her grave outside in the garden.
After the attack, he promised Jacqueline to try and hold on for eight years. On the evening of July 23, 2007, 11 years will have passed since the event that changed his life forever.
Martin's announcement that he plans to commit suicide has caused an uproar. The phone rang constantly for days. "The only one who didn't call was God," he jokes. Countless journalists asked him for an interview and outraged Christians urged him not to commit such a sin. But Martin says he doesn't need their advice. "Cath, cigarette please." He takes a deep drag and says that "99 percent of them" would already have "ended it all" years ago, in his situation. What does he think about other handicapped people who want to "end it all"? "Suffering is individual," he replies. "And you can't suffer every day." No, he says, he's not afraid to die. "No one escapes death anyway." He seems relaxed now -- almost cheerful. These are thoughts he has often thought.
Neo-Nazis are already celebrating the imminent death of the man they despise in their Internet forums. After all, the attack gave rise to an unprecedented campaign against xenophobia. Citizens in Mahlow spontaneously started up a local project called "Tolerant Mahlow." Martin returned to the city in 2001 and he called on its citizens to continue to stand up for the rights of others. He also established a charitable foundation against xenophobia.
Right-wing extremists, for their part, see it as a provocation that he is still alive. One of their Internet forums features a post by a neo-Nazi urging Martin to burn himself alive on a market square, noting that this would save money. The author of the post adds that he would be "happy to donate the gasoline." What does Martin think about the neo-Nazis? "Foolish people who know nothing about life. They love white skin, but they lie down in the sun to get a tan." He says to let them talk -- after all, there is such a thing as freedom of speech. "I wasn't afraid of them then, and I'm not afraid of them now," he says.
Noel Martin hasn't yet turned his back on life
Black people still aren't safe in Brandenburg today, 10 years after the attack on Noel Martin. "The government should make sure everyone can go wherever they want and be safe," he says. Martin knows how far-reaching the problem is. The first time he heard the word "nigger" was decades ago, back home, in the British industrial town of Birmingham.
And so Martin wants to make the most of the time that's left before the evening of July 23, 2007. His nurses, Cathy and Charity, spread out sheets of paper on the carpet. Martin discusses his appointments with the two nurses and makes a few phone calls. He hasn't turned his back on life yet. He's working on his book and in October he has a meeting with Brandenburg's governor, Matthias Platzeck in London. Later, he wants to return to Mahlow another time.
"I want to tell people they should stop apologizing for their past. They should just teach their children the value of life," he says. He's sure to receive public attention now -- and Martin is using it to support his foundation and other projects.
The right-wing extremists may well celebrate his death as a late triumph, but Noel Martin takes a very different view. "I have some bad news for those people," Martin says. He raises his head and his voice as if he were preparing to give a speech: "Of the 6 billion people in the world, 5 billion are people of color. Sooner or later they'll all mix." He grins. "Who knows? Maybe the children of these Nazis will marry a black man or a black woman one day?"
He likes the idea. The Nazis are running out of time -- with or without Noel Martin.
And please, my dear dongji, don't forget(^^):
*****
Following report was published before y'day in the German magazine Der Spiegel:
NEO-NAZIS ON THE MOVE IN GERMANY
How the Far Right Plans to Grow
Germany's far-right National Democratic Party is on the move. After recent successes at the polls in eastern Germany, the neo-Nazis now have their sights set on Bavaria and the national parliament. It's also improving relations with far-right militants.
A man is wandering around Schwerin Castle. Short, bald and wearing a dark suit, he tries every door, but most are locked. There is almost no one else in the castle, which houses the parliament (Landtag) for the eastern state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. It is Monday, Sept. 18, the day after the state parliamentary elections in which Germany's far right National Democratic Party (NPD) captured 7.3 percent of the vote.
But the man eventually finds what he is looking for. He enters a room and squints at a group of people wielding champagne glasses and surrounding Landtag President Sylvia Bretschneider, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The visitor amiably greets the group with the words "bottoms up" and asks for the director of the Landtag. He is here to discuss the future assignment of seats in the state parliament. The revelers are amused at the man's question and want to know who could possibly be in such a hurry. They practically drop their glasses at the man's response: "Peter Marx, NPD parliamentary group. We are ready to begin."
The anecdote, which Marx recounts with a smirk, is indicative of his party's self-confidence. It's the same self-assured smirk a number of NPD members had on their faces last Thursday when they greeted a group of journalists at their dilapidated headquarters building in Berlin's Köpenick neighborhood.
At the press conference, NPD leader Udo Voigt was joined by Udo Pastörs, the future head of the party's parliamentary group in Schwerin, Pastörs' campaign manager, Holger Apfel -- whose main job is running the NPD's parliamentary group in the state of Saxony's parliament -- and Gerhard Frey, the head of the extremist right-wing German People's Union (DVU). Surrounded by his supporters, Voigt told reporters about the party's plans for the future. In the wake of its successes in Schwerin and Berlin, where the NPD managed to win seats in four of the region's twelve district parliaments, Voigt said he plans to "strengthen our current bastions" and then "energetically approach the West." Next on the agenda for the NPD, also known in Germany as the "browns," are the Bavarian state elections in 2008 and national parliamentary elections in 2009.
"Germany pact"
The party plans to pursue a strategy of showing up the democratic parties in the respective parliaments and expanding its cooperation with what it calls "unaffiliated groups of comrades" within the neo-Nazi community. The NPD also intends to open citizens' offices and provide social services, which it expects to fund with government subsidies for campaign costs and parliamentary stipends for members' offices. Finally, Voigt plans to integrate the remnants of the struggling far-right party the Republicans into the NPD's and DVU's "Germany pact," which determines who runs for office and where.
The tattoo: "Everything for Germany". On the t-shirt("Combat 18"):
"1" stands for A(in the Latin alphabet), "8" for H = Adolf Hitler
Peter Marx is considered the mastermind behind the right-wing parties' strategy. Marx, who wears many hats -- as the NPD's deputy national chairman, its state chairman in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the current head of the NPD parliamentary group in Saxony's Landtag -- will move to Schwerin to manage the party's new six-member parliamentary group and ensure it causes the necessary commotion once its members assume their new positions.
As has already been the case in Saxony, provocation will be the order of the day for the NPD's delegates to the state parliament in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Two years ago, Marx scored a headline-grabbing coup during the election of Saxony's governor in Dresden. The governor position is elected by the state parliament, and Marx's candidate garnered two more votes than the NPD actually had in parliament. German newspapers wondered for weeks which delegates from the established parties might have defected to the far right.
Marx is already thinking about using the same strategy in Schwerin. "Secret agreements are always good for surprises," he says. And he still has other schemes up his sleeve. For example, the region's branch of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is closely aligned with Erika Steinbach, president of the Federation of the Expellees -- a non-profit organization formed to represent the interests of Germans displaced from their homes after World War II. The Federation has raised eyebrows in Poland, Czech Republic and Berlin with their wish to create a center documenting the fate of Germans forced to leave their eastern European homes at the end of the war. The NPD plans to stir up trouble in the Landtag by proposing a monument in downtown Schwerin to commemorate these expulsions -- and is hoping to get some from other parties to vote in favor of the plan.
Coordinating tactics
The NPD also has plans to make a laughing stock of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) -- which also captured seats in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania's Landtag for the first time and made its opposition to a proposed increase in Germany's value-added tax a central element of its campaign platform. They want to launch an initiative in the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament, to repeal the increase. "The FDP will hardly be able to vote against it," Marx gloats -- and will thus be in the uncomfortable position of allying itself with the far right.
Marx plans to coordinate his state organization's tactics with those of the NPD parliamentary group in Saxony in the future. Holger Apfel, who also heads the NPD parliamentary group in Saxony, is already boasting about what he calls a "Dresden-Schwerin axis."
Pastörs also stresses that the NPD's new delegates to the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Landtag will hardly make working with parliamentary committees much of a priority. If one adds the NPD's 7.3 percent of the vote to the roughly 40 percent of the electorate that shunned the polls, says Pastörs, it becomes obvious that "we are dealing with a clear rejection of the current system." Pastörs plans to devote his "full efforts to continuing to motivate and integrate the non-parliamentary national opposition" in the future.
He is referring to the so-called "unaffiliated groups of comrades," loose-knit collections of neo-Nazis in Germany's northeast sporting names such as the National Germanic Brotherhood and the Aryan Warriors. These groups had been critical of the NPD for years. They considered the party too tame and too old -- that is, until neo-Nazis like Thomas Wulff, nicknamed "Steiner," brought the troops to Voigt's more sedate colleagues.
Offering jobs to rowdy skinheads
"For the first time, the concept of a right-wing peoples' front has been fully realized in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania," Marx raves. An attempt to form a similar alliance failed in Saxony, where combative young would-be storm troopers were incensed over the NPD's parliamentary delegates in their business suits and official cars. But, according to Marx, the composition of the new parliamentary group in Schwerin shows that the NPD has learned from these squabbles. This time around, he says, the party plans to placate its rowdier members with official positions and money.
Tino Müller, an extremist who launched a citizens' initiative against a planned residential facility for asylum-seekers, is the deputy head of the NPD's parliamentary group in the new Landtag. Birger Lüssow, a member of the radical "Action Group for Fortress City Rostock," will represent the movement's violent wing in the state parliament, while others can look forward to well-paid jobs as staff members within the NPD parliamentary group.
The NPD also expects to involve its young Nazi members in its planned offensive into communal politics. According to Voigt, the party will establish "social guidance offices" in Berlin and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, mainly to lure voters away from the post-communist Left Party. Voigt, in an absurd take on the NPD's plans, says: "The social question will be resolved nationally or not at all."
"There is no doubt," says Hubertus Buchstein, a professor of political science at Greifswald University -- which is located in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania "that the NPD has become more successful since it abandoned its claim to be the sole representative (of German right-wing extremists) and has opened its doors to the comrade groups." But whether this balancing act between thugs and loudmouths will last is questionable.
"We'll get to the Bundestag"
NPD leader Voigt is optimistic. In eastern Pomerania, where the NPD captured more than 30 percent of the vote in several villages, he plans to "take a shot at the first mayoral positions" during the next round of communal elections -- a lofty goal, given the right-winger's apparent aversion to work.
A study recently published by Greifswald University, titled "The NPD in the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Communal Elections," points out the wide rift between the party's claims and reality, especially at the communal level. So far the NPD has only managed to capture ten seats on municipal councils in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, and its delegates have in fact been "present at virtually all council sessions and have even stayed to the end of each session." But, say the authors of the study, the NPD's representatives have not managed to gain seats on regular committees in any of these four municipal councils, and the right-wingers have also failed to make a splash during plenary sessions. "In (the Baltic seaside town of) Stralsund," the authors write, "it took almost half a year before one of the two NPD council members even managed to find his way to the podium."
Marx, the NPD's man in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, clearly has his work cut out for him. But Marx already has his sights set beyond Schwerin, with plans to penetrate the Bavarian Landtag in that state's 2008 parliamentary election. "(Bavarian premier Edmund) Stoiber is getting older, and I see a lot of potential there," he says. "If we can make it in Bavaria, we'll get into the Bundestag."
Yanks not invited
North Korean fest bars H'wood pix
By DEREK ELLEY
Few if any American film executives have managed to penetrate North
Korea's Pyongyang Film Festival, one of the world's most mysterious
events. Hollywood reps and films have been barred from the fest since it
began in 1987 - and that policy was unchanged for the 10th edition,
which shuttered Friday, despite this year's theme of "Peace,
Independence and Friendship."
So where does the world's most separatist country base its fest's
120-plus foreign guests a collection of official delegates, helmers,
producers, buyers (mostly from France and Germany) and Asiaphile critics
- who make it through the country's tight security? The 47-story
Yanggakdo Hotel on an island in the Taedong River that flows through
Pyongyang, well away from locals.
And, perhaps fittingly for a fest held in a totalitarian state, German
drama "Napola," set in a Nazi Youth training school, won film honors on
Friday evening.
Pic was chosen by a five-member feature jury, which included Russia's
Roza Film Studio director Galina Ebtysenko; German producer and head of
Bioskop Film, Hans Eberhard Junkersdorf; and Beijing Film Studio
director Wang Haowei.
Fest's main venue was the five-plex Pyongyang Intl. Cinema House next to
the hotel, although bigger movies, like German opener "The Miracle of
Bern," U.K. comedies "Bean" and "Nanny McPhee" and French drama "Cache,"
played downtown in the 3,000-seat People's Palace of Culture to SRO
auds. They were among the 72 titles in the program of old and new pics,
including 42 features, plus docus, shorts and toons, during the 10-day
fest. Aside from the obvious no-show of films from South Korea, the most
notable absence was U.S. pics, which are available in North Korea only
to university students and third-year acting students at the Pyongyang
Drama & Movie Institute. Young people in the capital are nevertheless
knowledgeable about Western stars and, as in South Korea and other Asian
countries, hang out at "video-bang" or KTV joints, where pics are
screened in individual rooms similar to karaoke booths.
Main focus for many of the guests was North Korean fare. However, only
two new features, both released locally in August, played at the fest:
Jang In-hak's "The Schoolgirl's Diary" and Phyo Kwang's anti-Japanese
period actioner "Pyongyang Nalpharam." Though local feature production
was down to two this year, plans are afoot to beef that up to five to
seven features next year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a well-known movie buff with a private
collection reputed to contain 20,000 titles, intends to upgrade the
industry's tech aspects, with $3 million recently invested in new
equipment.
With all actors and filmmakers on monthly salaries from the three
state-owned movie studios, budgets are hard to calculate in Western
terms, although an average movie costs around $100,000. Country has some
500 screens.
Main foreign markets for the movies are China, Vietnam, Iran and India,
with toons popular items.
Dealmaking remains difficult as many countries block North Korean bank
accounts overseas, but officials at Korea Film Export & Import Corp.
seem eager to do biz.
Meanwhile, European movies came away the big winners at the fest.
Apart from "Napola," small-scale Gallic drama "Not Here to Be Loved"
drew the director nod for Stephane Brize, and "Cache," a French-language
production helmed and written by Austria's Michael Haneke, took script
honors.
Actor prize went to Mathias Gnadinger in Swiss pic "Sternenberg," about
a 68-year-old primary school pupil in a village school about to be closed.
Other feature film awards went to pics from Russia, China and India,
with Indian painter-cum-filmmaker M.F. Husain's "Meenaxi: Tale of 3
Cities" winning lensing and art direction, both by Bollywood veterans.
For the past nine editions, the fest has been biannual. It could become
an annual event in the future, though no decision has been made.
Winners of the Pyongyang Film Festival:
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Best Film: "Napola" (dir. Dennis Gansel, Germany)
Best Director: Stephane Brize ("Not Here To Be Loved," France)
Best Script: Michael Haneke ("Hidden," France-Austria-Germany-Italy)
Best Photography: Santosh Sivan ("Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities," India)
Best Actor: Mathias Gnaedinger ("Sternenberg," Switzerland)
Best Art Director: Sharmishta Roy ("Meenaxi: Tale of 3 Cities")
Best Music: "Haul" (Russia)
Best Technical Prize: "Tai Hang Mountain" (Wei Lian, Shen Dong, Chen
Jian, China)
Special Jury Prize: "Children & Grandchildren of the Soldiers" (Minh
Chuyen, Vietnam)
TV PROGRAM COMPETITION
Best Director: Lisa Munthe, Helen Ahlsson ("The Armwrestler from
Solitude," Sweden)
Best Script: Hala Lotfy ("About Feeling Cold," Egypt)
Best Photography: Laurent Chalet, Jerome Maison ("The Emperor's
Journey," France)
Best Art Direction: "Clever Racoon Dog, Pt. 54" (Yun Yong-gil, N. Korea,
animated)
Best Music: Emile Simon ("The Emperor's Journey")
OTHER AWARDS
Festival Management Award (shared): "Public Relations" (Samir Zikra,
Syria), "Warm Spring" (Wulan Tana, China)
PS:
KCNA "reported" following last Friday:
Pyongyang Int'l Film Festival Closes
The 10th Pyongyang International Film Festival which opened on Sept. 13 closed on Friday with due ceremony at the People's Palace of Culture. Present at the closing ceremony were Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, Ro Tu Chol, vice-premier of the Cabinet, Kang Nung Su, minister of Culture who is chairman of the Organizing Committee of the festival, Pang Chol Gap, chairman of the Pyongyang City People's Committee, officials concerned, creators and artistes in the field of movie industry and working people in the city.
Also present there were delegations and delegates from various countries which participated in the festival.
Diplomatic envoys of various countries and staff members of foreign embassies here were present there on invitation.
At the closing ceremony the jury announced the results of the contest and prizes were awarded to successful films.
A letter to leader Kim Jong Il from the participants in the film festival was adopted at the ceremony.
Kang Nung Su in a closing address said that the festival has come to a successful close thanks to the sincere efforts of the participants in the festival and progressive moviemen.
He pointed to the fact that while staying in the DPRK the participants in the festival expressed support to the Korean people in their just cause of energetically pushing ahead with the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation. He declared the festival closed, noting that the Korean people would as ever make positive efforts to steadily develop the Pyongyang International Film Festival. The festival provided progressive moviemen from various parts of the world with a meaningful occasion to swap the successes and experience gained by them in the creation of cinematic art and boost the exchange and cooperation among them. According to the results announced by the jury, German full-length feature film "Napola" received the best prize.
Among the full-length feature films that entered the contest French film "Not Here to Be Loved" received the prize of production, French film "Hidden" the prize of scenario, Indian film "Tale of 3 Cities" the prize of shooting, the Belgian actor who played the part of a hero in the Belgian film "Off Screen" the prize of male star acting, the Swiss actress who played the part of a female teacher in Swiss film "Sternenberg" the prize of female star acting, the Indian film "Tale of 3 Cities" received the art prize, Russian film "The Vesyegonsk's She-Wolf" was awarded the music prize and Chinese film "Taihang Mountain" the technical prize.
Among the TV program films that entered competition Swedish documentary "The Armwrestler from Solitude" received the prize of production, Egyptian documentary "About Feeling Cold" got the prize for the framework of story, the French documentary "The Emperor's Journey" the prize of shooting, a sequel to Korean children's film "The Clever Racoon Dog" was awarded the art prize and the French documentary "The Emperor's Journey" also got the music prize.
Both Syrian film "Public Relations" and Chinese film "Warm Spring" won the prize of the Festival Organizing Committee and the Vietnamese documentary film "Children and Grandchildren of the Soldiers" was awarded the prize of the festival international jury.
8.12 in the north-east German city of Wismar 150 anti-fascists demonstrated under the slogan "No Vote for Neo-Nazis/Fascists Parties". Following video is documenting the "event".
A short while after the beginning of the demonstration they passed a neo-nazi shop(you can watch it 1 min. 30 sec. after the beginning of the video). While the demonstrators (wanted to) listen to a contribution about the shop and its role in the neo-nazi network structure five fascists were trying to attack the demo by using metal baseball bats. Only the cops, escorting the demo, were able to stop the fascists by threatening to use fire arms..
Following strange story K. Times will publish in its tomorrow's edition:
US Envoy’s Wife Violated Work Law
Lisa Vershbow, a costume jewelry maker and the wife of U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow arrived in Seoul last year, bringing with her many pieces of her work. In a recreation room near the embassy residence’s pool behind Toksu Palace, she soon set up a workshop, complete with a cozy fireplace.
At diplomatic receptions she handed out an attractive parchment name card, identifying herself as a working jewelry designer. Then in June, Mrs. Vershbow entered into an arrangement with the Sun Gallery located in fashionable Insa-dong.
Over a two-week period, the gallery sold 20 million won ($20,000) of Mrs. Vershbow's aluminum and plastic ornaments seemingly without concern that the ambassador's wife had a workshop, but no work permit. The ambassador’s wife and the gallery split the revenue.
The question became what difference is there between Mrs. Vershbow and anyone else who comes to Korea and earns money without the government's authorization?
Hundreds of such illegal immigrants are rounded up each year and deported. In 2005, the Justice Ministry took 27,295 people into custody for working in violation of their visa status...
(Please read the entire article here: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006091817372211990.htm)
Well, just call Immigration Office in Mok-dong!
SHE HAS TO BE ARRESTED AND DEPORTED! (as soon as possible!!!)
PS: Likely her husband - the so-called "ambassador" of the U.S.A. is her broker.. So, of course, he have to be arrested and deported too!!
^=^
harrharr.. as you can/will(just wait a bit more..) see - today I have only nonsense in my head.. (aeh.. sorry!! but as you know... it's not the first time^^)
덧글 목록
관리 메뉴
본문
Koreans aren't scared of Germany. Quite the opposite: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/10/03/200610030028.asp부가 정보