Spain's most important modern art museum has confessed it has lost a 38-tonne sculpture by the prestigious American artist Richard Serra.
The valuable artwork, Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi, was commissioned by the Reina Sofia museum in 1986, and displayed there until 1990.
The museum admitted on Wednesday that the last document it had relating to the piece and the payments made for its storage was dated 1992.
The four 1.5-metre-wide blocks of solid metal Serra used for the sculpture were removed from exhibition in 1990 and, as they were too big and heavy to keep on site, were sent to a private storage depot.
When the museum's new director, Ana Martinez, told her staff to produce an inventory last year, they discovered that the storage company had gone into receivership in 1998 and the blocks had disappeared. The owner of the company said he did not know where the sculpture had gone.
A Spanish newspaper suggested the work may have been sold as scrap or melted down by somebody who did not realise its artistic value. Ms Martinez, however, still hopes that the piece might be found.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/19/2006 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
#6
A Spanish newspaper suggested the work may have been sold as scrap or melted down by somebody who did not realise its artistic value.
Man! St. Louis should've thought of that! "Hello, Bud's Salvage? We got some iron scrap we'd like you to pick up and haul away. Yeah. Corner of 10th and Market. Could you possibly come in the evening, say, oh, midnight? What? Oh, no reason..."
A couple who planted a human finger in a bowl of chilli at a Wendy's fast food restaurant has been sentenced in California to nine years in prison. "Greed and avarice overtook this couple and they lost their moral compass," Judge Edward Davila said of Anna Ayala and her husband Jaime Plascencia in handing down the nine-year sentence.
The scam caused a sharp fall in sales at the third-largest US burger chain, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue and a lingering impact to this day, officials say. Plascencia was given another three years and four months for not paying support for the five children he has with another woman in an unrelated case, giving him a total sentence of 12 years, four months behind bars. Mr Davila also ordered the couple to pay almost $26.7 million in restitution but Wendy's officials indicated to the court they would only seek to collect approximately $227,000, representing the wages lost by employees at the San Jose restaurant where working hours were cut back after a downturn in business. "The crimes committed by the defendants have done immeasurable damage to Wendy's image, not only in northern California, but across the country," Denny Lynch, a Wendy's senior vice president, told the court.
Her apology: "I am truly sorry. I owe Wendy's and its employees an apology," a sobbing Ayala told the court.
"Wendy's had always been my family's favourite fast-food restaurant."
She called her actions "a moment of poor judgement" and told her family: "For all the shame I brought upon them I am sorry, I am so sorry."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Her finger story had all the right elements: ick factor, fast food contamination and the mystery of the finger itself. Wendy's offered a reward of $50,000 for information about the source of the finger, later doubling it. At one point, Sandy Allman, a Nevada woman, came forward and suggested the fingertip belonged to her, lost during a tiger attack. It was not hers, instead turning out to have belonged to a coworker of Ayala's husband at a paving company. The unfortunate victim, Brian Paul Rossiter, lost the digit on the job when his hand was caught in a truck lift mechanism.
Hey Rossi, give me da finger dude.... no, no, no, the one lying on the floor.... I'm sick of this hot asphalt job. I now have a neat Chilli idea, eheheheheez.
#4
"I am truly sorry [that I got caught]. I owe Wendy's and its employees an apology [and a sh*tload of money]," a sobbing Ayala told the court.
"Wendy's had always been my family's favourite fast-food restaurant [and, 'til recently, our favorite target for fraud]."
She called her actions "a moment of poor judgement [--if I may call countless days and nights of plotting and intrigue 'a moment']" and told her family: "For all the shame I brought upon them I am sorry, I am so sorry. [However, I am still sorrier that I got caught.]"
Posted by: Dar ||
01/19/2006 13:32 Comments ||
Top||
West Africa's leading peace broker made an emergency trip to Ivory Coast last night to try to prevent a resumption of the civil war after days of violence intensified with an attack on UN peacekeepers.
The president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, who is a key regional mediator, flew to Abidjan to talk to his Ivorian counterpart, Laurent Gbagbo, whom rebels accuse of orchestrating this week's unrest to undermine a new transitional government.
Yesterday UN peacekeepers were forced to pull out of a base at Guiglo, in the south-east of the country, after an armed group attacked the compound. Four people were killed, none of them from the UN's 200-plus staff.
Elsewhere, supporters of Mr Gbagbo blocked streets with burning tyres and stopped vehicles on the road to the international airport.
Mr Obasanjo took a lead role in negotiations to reunite Ivory Coast when it was divided between a government-held south and rebel-controlled north after a civil war in 2002.
The urgency of the situation was underscored by the fact that he left his own country amid a growing hostage crisis, with militants holding four foreign oil workers.
The latest unrest erupted in Ivory Coast on Monday after a UN-backed international mediation group recommended that parliament's expired mandate not be renewed. Mr Gbagbo is leading a one-year government of national unity that has diminished his executive powers.
The parliament, filled with his supporters, is viewed as Mr Gbagbo's last bastion of power, and the decision angered youth activists and the president's backers, who sent their followers on to the streets. Mr Gbagbo's party said it was withdrawing from the peace process and demanded UN forces leave.
The UN Security Council called on Mr Gbagbo to rein in the protesters and said sanctions were possible. A statement is expected today.
In Paris, the French army Chief of Staff, General Henri Bentegeat - who has peacekeepers in the former colony - called for UN sanctions against Ivory Coast, saying both sides appeared unwilling to resolve the conflict that has lasted for more than three years.
"It's an insurrection against the transitional government organised by Gbagbo and [his political party] to bring power back into their hands," said Sidiki Konate, a rebel spokesman.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/19/2006 00:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Put a bullet in Gbagbo's head and all this his obstruction and game playing will end. Zutto.
Quite frankly he isn't even worth the life of a single Frenchman or Nigerian.
JEDDAH â In a novel way to fight unemployment and make jobless Saudis self-reliant, the Abdul Latif Jameel Fund (ALJF) for Vocational Training and Development has launched a scheme to train Saudis in Islamic calligraphy so that they could start their own mirco enterprises in this aspect of decorative arts.
Boy, there's just gotta be a market for .. one or two of these guys.
The fund has sponsored a group of 11 Saudis to qualify them as Islamic calligraphers. It is the second initiative of its kind by the ALJ Fund, which had earlier conducted a training programme for Saudis in cookery to help them own micro business establishments in this field.
The young Saudis will study at Balqa University in Amman, Jordan, which specialises in this art and offers the training programme in collaboration with the Prince's School for Traditional Arts in London, which is located in Shoreditch. The school's patron is Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.
Yet another connection between Chuckles and the House of Saood ...
Omar Al Thebaiti, manager of ALJ Fund for vocational training and development, said that looking at the renewed interest witnessed in the society in these handicrafts and the changes in taste of Saudis in the fields of design, decoration and traditional works of art there was definitely a market for creating an Islamic ambience in the interior and external designs of houses and villas.
"Next on HGTV..."
"The six-month training course aims to qualify young Saudis, especially as there is a noticeable increase in demand for qualified people in these skilled areas. After completion of the training course, the trainees will be appointed in companies dealing in this business," he assured.
But that means that the trainees would have to .. work. Isn't there a Pakistani or a Filipino who could do this while the young Saoodi just gets paid?
He said that the course would concentrate on gypsum, metal and wooden decorative work. Students would be trained in brass work, design and implementation of gypsum work, as well as the art of wood carving and moulding work. The course will enable its graduates to have their own small businesses with the help of ALJ Fund for Micro-projects, which would also equip these enterprises and provide administrative and financial support to them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But that means that the trainees would have to .. work.
Yes, but they would be working in houses. Houses wherein women are ensconced, women who are bored out of their skulls, who may even not remember to wear those black tent thingies. Young women, even, who might find a man devoting himself to the arts to be so *sigh* romaaaantic, especially if he can quote classic Arabic poetry to show his education and depth of feeling.
#3
This all sounds suspiciously like...Art. Which is unIslamic. The words of Allan via the Profit need no embellishing. Art distracts the mind of the Believer from performing the obligations of the Ummah. Especially the part about the obligation of jihad.
#6
Can you say "eunuch"? Fun for the husband and lil veiled woman!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/19/2006 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Desert Blondie, there has to be some compensation for those many Saudi households that can't quite afford a pool -- with built-in Filipino labour -- right?
A Russian governor said OAO Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, has discussed a merger with state-run diamond monopoly Alrosa, marking a milestone in the Kremlin's drive to gain control of key sectors of the Russian economy.
Alexander Khloponin, governor of Krasnoyarsk province in Siberia, where Norilsk has its main production facilities, and a former chief executive of the company, said no final decision had been made regarding a merger. "Don't assume it's going to happen any time in the near future," he told local reporters. But he said shareholders in both companies had discussed "various approaches" to a tie-up that would leave the Russian government with a 25% stake in the combined entity and other shareholders with the rest.
His comments come in the midst of a Kremlin campaign to restore state dominance of strategic sectors of the economy -- a reversal of the legacy of the 1990s, when the state divested itself of some of its biggest industrial assets in often-controversial privatizations. During the past 12 months, state-owned energy companies OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft have expanded by swallowing up independent oil producers. Gazprom bought OAO Sibneft for $13 billion, and Rosneft acquired a big chunk of oil company OAO Yukos after it was broken up to settle a tax bill.
But the state's interest has increasingly spread from energy to other industries, such as car making and engineering. Rosoboronexport, the government's arms-export agency, recently took over management at Avtovaz, Russia's biggest auto maker, while state electricity monopoly RAO UES last year bought a big stake in OAO Power Machines, an engineering company. The pattern has worried economists from the World Bank and other international institutions, who say state companies are usually less efficient than privately owned ones.
Norilsk has long been seen as the next potential target. The company was acquired in 1995 by Interros, an industrial group controlled by tycoon Vladimir Potanin, in one of the controversial "loans for shares" auctions in which state natural-resource companies were sold to well-connected insiders in cut-price deals.
At the time, Interros paid $650 million for a 51% stake in Norilsk. The company is now valued at around $15 billion, and Mr. Potanin and another core shareholder, Norilsk Chief Executive Mikhail Prokhorov, are two of Russia's richest men.
Some have suggested Norilsk could go the way of Yukos, another company whose shareholders benefited from loans-for-shares and whose founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sent to prison last year for fraud and tax evasion. "Oligarch risk" is seen as one of the main reasons for the big valuation gap between Norilsk and its global mining peers. But it now seems clear that Norilsk will be merged with a state-owned entity, rather than broken up like Yukos or bought outright like Sibneft.
Mr. Khloponin's statement yesterday was the first official confirmation that discussions on a merger with Alrosa have taken place. Spokesmen for Norilsk, Alrosa and Interros all denied the talks, and Mr. Khloponin later put out a statement stressing there were "currently no plans" for a merger. "The companies are both being restructured and are not ready for such a process," he said.
Certainly, such a tie-up could take a long time to work out. Norilsk is spinning off its gold-producing assets into a separate company, Polyus, while the Russian government is trying to secure majority control of Alrosa.
The government currently owns 37% of the diamond producer, with the fiercely independent local government in the Siberian province of Yakutia controlling 32%. Moscow is trying to take over Alrosa's diamond mines, which the company leases from the Yakutian government. Analysts said Mr. Khloponin's merger proposal was more realistic than a leveraged buyout of Norilsk by Alrosa, which is a much smaller company. Alrosa posted about $380 million in net profit for the first nine months of last year, just 22% of Norilsk's net profit for the same period, according to Citigroup.
"It's debatable whether Alrosa is really the right proxy for the state's interests," said a Moscow-based Western banker.
The project, conceived in April by President Jacques Chirac of France and Gerhard Schröder, then the chancellor of Germany, is an attempt by two of Europe's largest economies to develop a local challenger to Google, the California-based search engine, which spent $327 million on research and development in the first nine months of 2005. No question the Euros can overcome Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and whom ever else is investing in a segment likely to be saturated before they complete their government make work project.
In a speech this month laying out his 2006 agenda, Chirac spoke to those concerns, saying: "We must take up the challenge posed by the American giants Google and Yahoo. For that, we will launch a European search engine, Quaero."
#1
If the project was conceived by Chiraq and Schroeder, then it is just a big money hole. Chiraq, especially, knows how to come up with schemes to piss away spend the public purse.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/19/2006 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'm sure it will be at least as successful as the Japanese Government's 50 billion yen Fifth Generation Project.
The carrying of the Olympic flame 7,000 miles (11,300km) across Italy, through 140 cities, ahead of the winter games in Turin has been plagued by almost daily confrontations after becoming the focus of protests by anti-global and environmental activists. Demonstrators have booed the flame, blocked its passage and caused it to be temporarily extinguished.
I'd ask whether these people have anything better to do, but this is Italy.
With three weeks to go before the Olympics start, the mayor of Turin, Sergio Chiamparino, has pleaded with protesters on the radio to demonstrate peacefully and leave the flame alone. Police, however, have registered 36 separate disturbances since the relay began on December 8. The majority of protests centre on a campaign to boycott Coca-Cola, whose sponsorship of the sporting event is reputed to be worth £36m.
'cause every true Leftist knows that Coca-Cola is evil. Says so in the Communist Manifesto. You could look it up.
Environmentalists opposed to a planned high-speed railway link between Italy and France and to the Mose plan to save Venice from high tides have also been protesting.
If they don't build the train, people will just ... drive.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/19/2006 00:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Russia says it has accepted a request by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to come to Moscow for medical treatment, and will guarantee to return him to his war crimes trial after treatment. Milosevic, suffering from a heart condition and high blood pressure, asked for a provisional release from detention in the Netherlands where he is being tried by the United Nations war crimes tribunal on genocide charges.
That assumes he's ever 'healthy' enough to be returned ...
Mikhail Kamynin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Russia has sent the necessary folder of documents to the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, on the basis of which the tribunal could take a decision on the temporary release of Milosevic. "Apart from this, Milosevic himself has offered the tribunal guarantees that he will return to The Hague immediately after the completion of his treatment."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
BALAKOT: The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has distributed tin food that expired twenty years ago among the earthquake survivors of Balakot, the use of which is causing skin allergies and stomach murmurs to those who consume it. The tins, containing tuna fish and baked beans, were produced in the year 1983 and were to be used within two years. The manufacturing date on top and bottoms of the tins clearly states their date of manufacture and expiry. Some heath officials from Frontier gave the expired stuff to patients at the leprosy hospital and their children. The expired tins were distributed directly without the knowledge of the district heath officer or the district health department. Neither the World Health Organisation (WHO) nor the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) know about
The expired food caused itching and skin rashes in children and stomach problems for adults. Prepared by the Varamin's Agro Industries of Iran, the tins were donated by the IRCS. The tins carry a caption outlining the fundamental principles of humanity %u2013 voluntary service, independence, impartiality, neutrality, unity and universality.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
`Just for curiosity, what do they normaly eat?
Could be plain old indigestion from eating "Foreign" foodstuffs.
I mention this because as I once had an opportunity to eat "C" rations, easily a good 30 years old at the time, they were quite good, far better than legend has it, (Except the canned bread, the shortening had turned) and still good after all that time
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/19/2006 19:56 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Redneck Jim,
the canned bread was already *turned* way back in the 60s.
BAGHDAD: Iraq needs $20 billion over the next five years to solve a chronic electricity crisis after U.S. reconstruction funds failed to flick the right switches, the Iraqi electricity minister said. "When you lose electricity the country is destroyed, nothing works, all industry is down and terrorist activity is increased," Mohsen Shlash said Tuesday.
Power cuts are part of daily life for millions of Iraqis who paradoxically have an ever increasing need for energy because of an influx of electronic goods, such as air conditioners, over the past three years.
Total power production is lower than before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, at about 3,700 megawatts, because of insurgent attacks and other reconstruction problems, according to a Western diplomat with expertise in the sector. Prewar production peaked at about 4,300 megawatts - well under half of Iraq's potential capacity.
The United States earmarked $4.7 billion for the neglected electricity sector in 2003, but much of the money has gone and there is little to show for it, Shlash said. The Iraqi government has a few projects under way to rebuild or replace parts of the country's dilapidated electricity infrastructure, he added. "But this is not enough. There is a big need to build more power plants and of course this needs time and money - and we lack both," Shlash said.
"From this day, we need $20 billion over five years to cover the expected increase in the [electricity] load and the necessary reserves."
Such funds, however, must appear quickly and go toward competitively priced projects by Iraqi firms, in contrast to much of the U.S. money, which went to U.S. primary contractors, with large overheads and huge security costs, Shlash said. "The American donation is almost finished and it was not that effective. They did a few power plants, yes, but that definitely is not worth $4.7 billion," said the minister, adding that some of the work carried out was worth just one-tenth of the money being spent.
Does make you wonder where the rest of the money went.
Daniel Speckhard, director of the U.S.-funded Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, painted a slightly rosier picture of the U.S. efforts, which included projects to repair or rebuild many of Iraq's 32 power plants as well as maintenance work on transmission and distribution lines. "Electrical services today as a result of our entire program are more evenly distributed through the country than before the war, but as you are aware challenges continue in that sector," he told a news conference on Monday.
Power in southern and northern Iraq, where most plants are based, is slightly higher than before the war, when Saddam Hussein used to divert electricity to Baghdad, the Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But now the capital and much of the central regions are suffering some of their worst power shortages, with just two to six hours of electricity per day.
Shlash said U.S. reconstruction money would have gone further in the hands of Iraqi contractors who charge a fairer price and carry a lower security risk. Had this happened, "by now we would have had very little power problems or maybe no power cuts at all," said Shlash.
A U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington was increasingly contracting Iraqi companies for its electricity jobs. But he insisted that it had been necessary to employ large, foreign firms with experience in organizing the projects at the start.
The Western diplomat, meanwhile, said progress on the U.S. reconstruction front had been slow because Washington underestimated the dire state of Iraq's electricity infrastructure and the inadequate training of its technicians. In addition, daily attacks on power stations and transmission lines further damaged the infrastructure, destroying or delaying repair work.
As a result, the United States pushed back a goal to lift Iraq's power production to 6,000 megawatts from the middle of 2004 to the end of this year.
Going forward, Shlash said the $20 billion needed to generate power 24 hours a day should come from Iraqi coffers or in the form of loans rather than slow-to-emerge donations from the international community. Iraq, however, is severely strapped for cash. The Electricity Ministry asked for $1.8 billion for this year's budget, but the government only approved one-third of that amount, some $650 million, said Shlash.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/19/2006 00:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
From friends who have been in Iraq, there are two major problems with the electricity network. One is the incredibly rapid grouwth of the Iraqi economy and the second is the theft of power cables by some of those new Iraqi Enterpeneurs. They make very nice copper coffee sets to sell to the State Dept people and reporters!
#5
I'm so sick of the MSM's comparison of "pre-war" vs. "post-war" conditions of Iraq's infrastructure. Yeah, everything was so rosy under Saddam. It's almost as if the reporters don't get that things get blown up, torn apart, damaged and intentionally destroyed during a WAR!
Posted by: BA ||
01/19/2006 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
"Does make you wonder where the rest of the money went."
A retired colonel who recently spent a year over there told me we have a truly spectacular bureaucracy in place. Money is loosed slowly, and he described State people in the project as naive.
I dunno: corrupt Iraqi contractors or dumb bureaucrats. Take your pick.
Posted by: James ||
01/19/2006 12:19 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Iraq needs to be stabilized and the terrorists killed. When enough of them have been killed, then they will be gone or have given up. Then you can ramp up building electricity infrastructure with Iraqi oil funds. More terrorists eliminated means the oil flow will increase, revenue will increase and rebuilding will increase. Otherwise Iraq will remain a typical ME sh*thole.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/19/2006 21:16 Comments ||
Top||
U.S. Repeating Arms Co. Inc. plans to close the New Haven factory that opened in 1866. New Haven residents are trying to save the plant before the March 31 closing date, but if a buyer can't be found, it could mean the end of all commercially produced Winchesters.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
01/19/2006 13:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Challenge for Rantburg Industries:
1. Buy gun factory.
2. Build AK-47's
3. Sell to US Gubment (cough, cough)
4. Machinery magically delivered to Iran dissidents.
5. Fun and profit.
The Benefits of Becoming Indian AKA: Ward Churchill Syndrome Sweeps Nation.
In the United States a growing number of white people are discovering their Native American roots. Some are doing so for financial gain, but most are just looking for the meaning of life. And the meaning of life is usually financial gain...
A few weeks, Betty Baker was still just a white housewife. But now the woman, with her piercing blue eyes, goes by the name "Little Dove" --and has jettisoned her apron for an elaborate deerskin dress. I wonder if that turns on hubby?
"I am an Indian and I've sensed this my whole life," says the 48-year-old Baker, who lives in a wooden house on the edge of the small town of Pinson, Alabama. Five years ago, after her parents told her that her family probably had some Native American ancestry, she assembled documents and birth certificates and last September was accepted into the Cherokee Tribe of northeast Alabama. The cultural neophyte is now zealously learning the rituals and dances of her newly discovered ancestors. Twenty Three...busted...no winner. Place your bets.
But she certainly isn't alone. Little Dove is just one of thousands of people in the United States who are becoming Indians. The government's official grouping of "Native Americans" is an extremely fast growing minority: between 1960 and 2000 it grew by 640 percent. More than 4 million Americans now describe themselves as Native American, which cannot be explained by the birth rate alone. Much of the growth is due to people like Betty Baker changing their ethnicity. Changing you ethnicity? You can just do that? Can I be a Viking? Or a Mongol?
Most of these new Indians have pale skin, some are even blond, and almost all were considered white before. Others point to high cheek bones, brown eyes and straight, glossy hair in their families as unmistakable signs of Indian ancestry. The self-described 'half bloods' may still live in their old homes, but their free time is now taken up by organizing powwows and walking around in costumes like those straight out of old Western movies. How! Where I park'em Mercedes? Financial benefits No! Really? Do tell...
But the benefits of racial identity aren't the only ones Indian converts are after. The Indian identity has attracted some poor Americans for the access to university scholarships or free health insurance that comes with it. Potential income from casinos. Indian tribes are allowed to have gambling on their reservations, as long as the tribe is recognized by the US government. A loophole that was originally intended to help many Native Americans out of poverty and deprivation has developed into a huge business. The gambling income nationwide amounts to over $18 billion annually and much of it is distributed among the members of the tribes. Also increases your chance for employment and/or tenure at the University of Colorado.
One of the biggest casinos in the world -- with 40,000 visitors a day -- is run by the Mashantucket Pequot near Norwich, Connecticut. Since gambling was established in 1986 the number of Indians living there has increased tenfold -- and each week there are new applications. According to Joyce Walker, the administrator of applications, "People say: I've just found out that I'm an Indian, and want to know how I can get my cash." Meanwhile the Mashantucket Pequot have made their entry requirements tougher and demand proof of blood ties. They and other tribes recognized by the state insist that they alone can decide who they accept and who they don't. Even those who turn up with DNA proof can be rejected. Go whine to Columbus, white eyes. It's all his fault.
This doesn't seem to be putting off these "wannabe" Indians. If they are not accepted by the established tribes many simply found their own. While there are only three recognized Cherokee nations (two in Oklahoma and one in North Carolina), for example, there are now more than 240 tribes from Alaska to Mexico that have been attempting to gain government recognition for years. So far without success. I'll try for staus for the Hon-key tribe. We're fierce warriors. And accountants. A sense of belonging
Circe Sturm of the University of Oklahoma believes these second-class Indians are often simply enjoying themselves. The anthropologist has interviewed more than 70 people who changed ethnic groups about their motivation. She doesn't believe that most of them are just after the money. Many are frustrated and are looking for some kind of meaning in their lives. "If being white is just an empty plate," she says, "then being Indian is a gourmet buffet." White people boring. Film at eleven.
Many of the converts connect the indigenous existence with ideals such as equality between the sexes, more democracy and a romantic affinity with nature. The anthropologist found that two things were particularly attractive to the pale-faced Indians: the spiritual rituals and the idea of belonging to a group. An increasing number of Americans want to experience those pleasant feelings -- and that is causing some unrest amongst Indians. In order to escape an invasion of outsiders, even many of the newer tribes are trying to seal themselves off from further claimants. So instead of becoming hippies these days, I guess you become an Indian?
Little Dove's husband Steve Baker is a mechanic and also feels like an Indian. He wears moccasins and a loin cloth, goes to the folklore meetings and wants to be accepted into his wife's tribe as "Running Bear." So it is a turn on...
However, this isn't likely to happen anytime soon. The once so modest hobby tribe in northeast Alabama has swelled to 4,000 Cherokees and is now re-examining its integration policies. Until further notice, no new Indians will be accepted. Scram! Go to Vegas and open your own casinos, paleface!
#3
Many are frustrated and are looking for some kind of meaning in their lives. "If being white is just an empty plate," she says, "then being Indian is a gourmet buffet."
Personally Iâve always considered myself a steaming hot cup of coffee... with a considerable amount of cream in it.
#4
My sister married a man who's 1/2 Canadian Iriquois - though he doesn't advertise it or use it in any way. That makes their daughters 1/4 native - enough to legitimately claim membership, IIUC. Now that the girls are old enough to start looking at colleges (very competitive ones), they're wondering if they should claim their native heritage to get an edge. At least they wouldn't be lying, unlike a certain perfesser.
#5
Who couldn't see this kind of garbage coming as a logical consequence of affirmative action? AA was a scam from its inception and has done nothing but become more biased with time. Damn the people who invented it and double damn those complete frigging idiots who continue it at the cost of Balkanizing this country. At the end of the day there will be a serious price to pay for having done this and it won't be silliness like this story.
Posted by: mac ||
01/19/2006 13:21 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I think I'm going to become a "Native American" too.
From now on, my Indian name will be:
Sits On Ass And Types.
Or you can just call me "Chief" if that's easier.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/19/2006 14:48 Comments ||
Top||
#7
"If being white is just an empty plate," she says, "then being Indian is a gourmet buffet."
Yeah! God knows there's *NEVER* been a contribution to culture from the white man.
Many of the converts connect the indigenous existence with ideals such as equality between the sexes
A concept that the white man developed and introduced. Sorry, but there is NFW you can stretch the cultural practices from the Americas -- North, South, or Central -- into any shape resembling equality of the sexes.
Looking at pre-Columbian (but late!) practices, I have to point at Cahokia's Mound 72:
Primary mound 3 [part of mound 72] was constructed between the first two mounds and was built over a large burial pit containing over 53 young women ages 15 to 30 and four males with heads and hands removed.
Modern testing of the 53 sacrificed women established they were not native to Cahokia; they were either tribute supplied from other regions, captives, or slaves purchased in trade.
That's some real equality there...
more democracy
Bullshit. Utter bullshit. How democratic is a society in which a funeral of the absolute dictator's cousin involves the ritual murder of dozens of slaves and lower-caste tribesmen? Or in which the caste into which you're born -- and your role within society -- is fixed?
and a romantic affinity with nature
Again, bullshit. The Natives modified their environment to the best of their abilities, and the myth of the ecological Indian is as racist as blackface. Hint: maize isn't natural, and its ancestor grasses aren't native to North America, yet it was the primary staple of North American cultures at the time of Columbus. Other farmed plants were spread -- introduced despite being alien species -- and the fricking dog wasn't native to the Americas, either.
There's archaeological evidence of over-farming, of deforestation, and other supposedly modern crimes against nature.
The anthropologist found that two things were particularly attractive to the pale-faced Indians: the spiritual rituals and the idea of belonging to a group.
In other words, New Age religion and a feeling of belonging, exacerbated by the modern practice of treating European heritage and American culture as diseases and the racist noble savage myth.
I've got Cherokees in my family tree, too, and I'm certainly not ashamed of them. But I recognize where real progress -- technological and cultural -- has come from.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/19/2006 14:53 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I'm a member of the Fakowee tribe. Whenever we go to a new place we introduce ourselves, "High, We're the Fakowee". People usually answer us with the name of the place we are at the moment.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/19/2006 15:30 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Remember this when people start saying whites are a minority. Seems a little drop of ethnicity is all it takes to be non-white. We've nearly created the Bizarro world version of Aparthied.
#13
Crap like this is why I like putting down Human under race. People get all confused when they are talking about race and you ask them if they're aliens since their race isn't human.
What? I was born in this country. How much more native can I get?
Oh, yeah - I do also have a bit of aboriginal American in me courtesy of my maternal grandfather. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/19/2006 20:39 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Me? I'm 100% pure Central European immigrant. But Mr. Wife just learnt last month that one of the French Canadian g'g'g'-great-somethings actually married out about two centuries ago. So he has that single drop of Iroquois blood, too. Genetically speaking, the aboriginal peoples did pretty well in the way of decendents, considering that something like 90% died of various plagues between the time the first Europeans landed on the continent and the time they conquered those remaining.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Spain's most important modern art museum has confessed it has lost a 38-tonne sculpture by the prestigious American artist Richard Serra.
JEDDAH â In a novel way to fight unemployment and make jobless Saudis self-reliant, the Abdul Latif Jameel Fund (ALJF) for Vocational Training and Development has launched a scheme to train Saudis in Islamic calligraphy so that they could start their own mirco enterprises in this aspect of decorative arts.
The carrying of the Olympic flame 7,000 miles (11,300km) across Italy, through 140 cities, ahead of the winter games in Turin has been plagued by almost daily confrontations after becoming the focus of protests by anti-global and environmental activists. Demonstrators have booed the flame, blocked its passage and caused it to be temporarily extinguished.
Russia says it has accepted a request by former Yugoslav President 
