This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 7; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-2016-eurovision-song-contest-grand_24.html
Although they had some fun with it the Balkan nations used the Song Contest largely to protest the migration crisis that has been thrust upon them by the western European states. That is because they are still dealing with the consequences of the last time the western European states thrust a migration crisis upon them in the form of the Greater Albania movement.
For many of the western European nations the mass migration of predominately Muslims is still considered something of a novelty.
So they concentrated their efforts on exploring the aspects of this strange new phenomenon with a view to offering a solution. After all the way that you integrate large numbers of Muslim migrants is more or less the same as the way you stop native born Muslims migrating away to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated terrorist groups.
Finland: As I mentioned at the time of the first semi-final they were represented by Sandhja who is half-Finnish, half-Indian. Her look borrowed heavily from British Tamil (Sri Lankan) star M.I.A and the video in support of the song owed a lot to the imagery of Britain's - particularly London's - multicultural inner-city housing estates.
This was done to highlight that due to its links with the UK Commonwealth the UK has a long history of non-white immigration. Despite coming from a vast range of ethnic and religious groups all of these immigrants have been rather successfully integrated into British society. As such very white Finland was hoping the UK could share its experience with the group.
In her stage performance Sandhja kept raising her fingers in the form of a pistol as if she wanted to start singing; "Braap, Braap!" in the middle of her song. This is something that is synonymous with American hip-hop music - "the black music" as it was referred to this year. As such Finland seemed to be openly mocking US policy - particularly that of US President Obama.
However it also seemed to be Sandhja firing the starting gun for the discussion about racial integration.
Although I wouldn't go so far as to describe race relations in Britain as being perfect it is certainly doing a lot better than a lot of other nations. The key to the UK's relative success lies in four main areas;
1.Housing: Obviously the first challenge in integrating immigrants into a society is getting them to live within that society.
If that fails to happen then a phenomenon known as Ghettoisation emerges where all the immigrants from a certain country/culture all live together within a distinct area of a city/country. With no reason to leave their ghetto the immigrants really exist as citizens of the country/culture they've come from with no meaningful contact with the society in which they now live.
Regardless of whether you're talking about Muslims in Molenbeek, Belgium. Tamils in Tooting, UK or African-Americans in Atlanta, US the main driver behind ghettoisation is economic. Newly arrived migrants tend to be poor meaning that they can only afford to live in the cheapest areas of a city.
To combat this the UK operates an integrated planning policy that is largely laid out in Section 106 of the Town & County Planning Act 1990. Broadly speaking this states that if a property developer wants to receive permission for a construction project it must include provision for affordable social housing.
This policy means that even in the richest areas of the UK such as central London you still find properties owned by the local authority or as now more often the case local housing associations. Despite being in some of the richest areas these properties are available at the cheapest rents in the entire country.
As a result no matter where you go in Britain you will find very poor people living right next door to very rich people. This stops poor immigrants clustering together and stops either the rich or the poor forgetting that the other group exists.
The Section 106 provisions are backed up by what is known as Housing Benefit. This is a social welfare payment that is most often used to top-up the wages of the very low paid in order to allow them to pay the higher rents in the private sector away from the social housing sector.
Unfortunately Muslim immigrants pose a particular problem when it comes to housing policy.
That is because they are very heavily influenced by Arab society where the tribal system is extremely prevalent meaning that strong family links are highly valued. As a result if you go to areas of Britain where there are large Muslim populations you will very often find that not only is everybody on a particular street Muslims they're all actually members of the same extended family.
There is also a specific problem with certain sects of Islam such as Deobandi sect which is prevalent amongst Pakistani Muslims. Often confused with the Wahhabism that is actively promoted by Saudi Arabia this sect actually discourages contact between Muslims and non-Muslims whom Deobandis consider disgusting.
2.Schooling: As with many Eurovision nations the schooling of children is compulsory in the UK. Although a great deal of work by Local Authorities and Social Services goes into avoiding things escalating to that stage under law the power does exist for officers of the Court (Sheriffs) to go into homes and physical drag children out in order to force them to go to school.
This obviously provides a useful mechanism to ensure that children are forced to interact with other children from different ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds from a very young age for at least 10 years.
The example that's sort of on the tip of my tongue at the moment comes from the British city of Oldham.
Here following the 2001 race riots the local authority discovered that it had two schools. One was in the middle of a catchment area that had an almost exclusively Muslim population so the school was made up of exclusively Muslim students. The other was in the middle of the neighbouring catchment area that had an almost exclusively white population. As a result that school was made up of exclusively white students.
What the local authority did was shut down both schools. They then opened one big school - the Waterhead Academy - that sat on the border of both catchment areas and mixed all the Muslim and white students together. This not only forced the children to interact with each other it also meant that the parents had to start interacting with each other through things like the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the school board of parent governors.
Even taking Islam out of the equation integrated education and school has long been recognised as a mechanism for social cohesion. It is being particularly pursued in Northern Ireland through the governmental Integrated Education Fund (IEF) and the non-governmental Northen Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE).
3.Employment: As with schooling employment provides an environment where people from different ethnic, religious and to a lesser extent economic backgrounds are forced to interact with each other on a daily basis.
However in a freemarket economy it is one where the government and Courts as less able to intervene in order to ensure social cohesion. In fact particularly with the European Human Rights Act and other anti-discrimination legislation it is an area where governments are actually specifically forbidden from interfering.
However it does give me an opportunity to discuss something that has been troubling me for a number of years now. The Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) campaign against illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory.
In my younger, more active days I actually did a lot of work alongside BDS activists particularly in relation to the Defence Systems Exhibition International (DSEI) arms fair that takes place in London, UK every two years. Not only were many of these BDS activists Jewish many of them were actually natural born Israeli citizens.
What these BDS activists would do is carefully research all those companies involved in or profiting from the establishment of illegal Israel settlements in Palestine. That research would go to the extent of looking at the entire corporate culture of those companies.
So if an extremist Zionist in the sort of Avigdor Lieberman mould was looking to replace a more moderate Director on the board of one of those companies the BDS activists would buy up shares in that company and make sure that all other shareholders were aware to the prospective candidates political views. The idea being to make sure the appointment was blocked and prevent the company moving in a more extreme direction.
BDS activists would also look carefully at what each of these companies were actually doing in the occupied territories and prioritise them accordingly.
An example of a company that would be given a high priority for campaigning against would be the US construction machinery company Caterpillar. After all their involvement is limited to simply making profit by selling the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) bulldozers to smash down Palestinians homes.
An example of a company given a much lower priority by BDS campaigners would be SodaStream.
Their involvement in the occupied territories is much more significant than Caterpillar's with them operating a factory in the West Bank.
However by operating their factory there SodaStream were providing employment for Palestinian workers where jobs are scarce. They were also providing an environment where Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arab were working together in peace and harmony free from the violence and intolerance that plagues much of the rest of Israel/Arab interactions.
Unfortunately in recent years almost all of that precision has completely disappeared from the BDS.
Where before there was lots of research and the careful application of pressure to force companies to consider the ethics of their involvement in the occupied territories there now seems to be an utter hatred of not only all Israeli companies but also all Jews worldwide.
For example having become a major target for BDS SodaStream closed their West Bank factory in March 2016. The 70+ Palestinians who are now unemployed as a result are hardly giving thanks to BDS activists and a lot of people are left mourning this example of relative harmony between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Caterpillar still makes a fortune selling bulldozers.
In 2014 the actress Scarlett Johansson did a controversial Super Bowl commercial for SodaStream that seemed to gently mock the increasingly hysterical BDS campaigners.
What I found interesting is that amid all the controversy is that even amongst the more extreme Arab press where highlighting someones Jewishness is still considered a form of insult because of her blond hair and blue eyes very few people actually picked up on the fact that Scarlett Johansson is Jewish.
I would make a joke about the Nazis making the same mistake about her ancestors. But there's probably some truth in that.
The Eurovision community itself has rather suffered from this rising tide of anti-Semitism is recent years.
For a long part of the Song Contest's history Israel's fortunes were carefully tied to their aggression towards the Palestinians. So for example if the Israelis were being particularly aggressive a good song would be marked down accordingly while if they were being more peaceful a bad song would be marked up. How good an entry Israel made in relation to their Palestine policy was one of the areas of great political artistry within the contest.
In recent years though that too has disappeared to be replaced by a deafening chorus of: "Kill The Jews!" and last year Israel threatened to quit the contest if they didn't start receiving more equitable treatment. As such it was reassuring that their particularly strong entry this year did deservedly make it through to the final.
Most worryingly this rising tide of anti-Semitism seems to have spread beyond the BDS campaign and Eurovision to infect large parts of the European left.
A prime example of this was the recent suspension by the UK Labour Party of Naz Shah for making extremely anti-Semitic comments. This was followed up by senior Labour Party figure Ken Livingstone attempting to defend her by claiming that Adolf Hitler was a secret Zionist because of the Haazara Agreement.
In both cases Labour supporters lept to both Ms Shah and Mr Livingstone's defence claiming that there was absolutely nothing anti-Semitic about their comments and they were merely protesting Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Ms Shah in particular had attempted to deny the entire history of not only the middle-east region but also of the entire Jewish religion.
If people cannot identify that as anti-Semitic then they are either aggressively anti-Semitic themselves or are so extremely stupid that they have no understanding of the situation whatsoever. Either way as a Socialist I want absolutely nothing to do with them.
I think the problem with the European left really began following the September 11th 2001 (11/9/01) terrorist attacks against the United States. In response to this the American right seemed to declare every Muslim - and a fair few Sikhs - to be terrorists.
In response to that to show their opposition the European left sort of started to bestow this almost Messianic status on Muslims whereby they're all sainted, good people who cannot possibly lie and don't engage in terrorism. Those who do are simply freedom fighters responding to the oppression of Guantanamo Bay and American Imperialism.
Even after Mohammed Emwazi had been revealed as ISIL's self-styled executioner-in-chief "Jihadi John" there were still those and are still those amongst the British left prepared to defend him. They claim he is merely an innocent victim of British Islamaphobia and racism rather than the a*rsehole he very clear was.
The reality of course is far more complicated than either the American right, the European left or anyone else who engages in this sort of school yard nonsense could bring themselves to understand.
There are roughly 1.7bn Muslims on the planet with big divisions between not only the Sunni and Shia branches but also between the Salafi and Sufi interpretations of those branches to name just a few.
So as with Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus and all the other religions the vast majority of Muslims are kind, peaceful, reasonable people.
However there is a tiny minority who are utterly opposed to things like religious freedom and ethnic tolerance. Some of that minority are prepared to use violence to achieve their aims so pose a significant security risk to those who don't agree with them.
In fact I would go so far as to say that the European left's insistence that all Muslims are one thing or the other is in itself a form of racism.
The fourth main plank of Britain's success in race relations is the policy of multiculturalism. At around 16:55 on 29/5/16 (UK date) I will try and deal with that along with a bit of a tidy up after dinner.
Edited at around 18:10 on 29/5/16 (UK date) to add above & below;
4.Multiculturalism. This is something that has been practised by successive British governments since at least the 1970's. Far from being just a mere buzzword it is actually a carefully developed political philosophy.
Essentially it dictates that rather than being forced to adopt the cultural practises of their new homeland immigrants are free to continue practising their own culture. Provided their culture doesn't impede on the rights of other people in their adopted homeland.
As always when it comes to balancing the rights of different individual citizens within a society what sort of compromises are considered reasonable under multiculturalism is an extremely complicated and evolving set of legal, moral and political questions. I am certainly not going to be able to give a definitive answer here and I don't think anyone ever will.
Obviously there are some situations where the answer is easy.
For example if you don't want to eat pork or a woman wants to wear a headscarf it makes absolutely no difference to me. However if you are starting to talk about passing laws or even creating a societal peer pressure whereby nobody is allowed to eat pork and all women must wear a headscarf then you are starting to behave unreasonably by impeding on the rights of others.
By the same token you couldn't suddenly declare that rape, murder and theft are part of your culture and therefore your right to commit those illegal acts is protected under multiculturalism.
Quite an interesting example from British law that's built up over recent years relates to Sikhs and the carrying of offensive weapons.
It is one of the five articles of the Sikh faith that men must carry a sword or knife known as a "Kirpan" with them at all times. However British law prohibits the carrying of most knives in public in order to reduce violent crime such as murder, assault and armed robbery.
Although I can't pretend I'm up to date on the latest guidance to prosecutors there has been extensive debate over the years as to how reconcile Sikh's duty to carry a Kirpan with the offence under Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
I seem to remember that a specific design of a Kirpan is defined in case law. Therefore if a clearly very observant Sikh man who is upholding the other four articles of faith - Kesh, Kangha, Kara, Kachera - is found in possession of a Kirpan which is say 4 inches rather than the permitted 3.5 inches in length it is impossible for them to have committed the criminal offence.
However if they suddenly start carrying a machete up and down the High Street or use their Kirpan to murder someone they're still going to go to prison.
Another quite interesting example that's cropped up in London recently concerns Pentecostalist Christians from sub-Saharan Africa. Although there doesn't seem to be any fixed rules for Pentecostalism many practitioners still believe in demonic possession. As such they regularly conduct exorcisms to rid naughty children of evil spirits.
Many of these exorcisms can be both physically and psychologically extremely violent. Therefore they break various UK laws against child abuse. It is becoming an increasing problem for child social services to know when to step in to protect the children and when to stand back and respect the cultural practises of their parents.
A current example from the Eurovision area that does directly relate to Muslims in particular comes from Switzerland.
Here two Muslim boys - of unspecified sect - aged 14 and 15 refused to shake the hand of their female teacher as is expected under school rules. They argued that their interpretation of Islam forbids them from that type of physical contact with members of the opposite sex whom they are not related to.
The school in the town of Therwil in the Basel-Country Canton caused uproar by accepting this argument and refusing to punish the boys for violating school discipline.
The national education authority then got involved. It ruled that the local authority had violated the teacher's right not to be discriminated against at work on the basis of gender by not disciplining the boys and threatened a USD5,100 fine if the school did not reverse its decision.
I understand that this is an ongoing debate within Switzerland. However at the risk of being ostracised by the European left I think that the boys should do what they are told.
After all if they can't find a way to reconcile that sort of completely non-sexual touching with their religion they are going to have extreme problems both with women and living in a European society for the rest of their lives.
19:20 on 29/5/16 (UK date).
Sunday, 29 May 2016
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Final Pt.7
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 6; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-2016-eurovision-song-contest-grand_23.html
The most interesting opposition to the myriad of problems facing Europe come from the blocs of nations that made up the former Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia and the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
One of the big political developments since the last Song Contest was the conviction in March 2016 of Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for 10 offences of crimes against humanity committed during the wars that brought about the collapse of Yugoslavia. These included the genocide of at least 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the town of Screbrenica in July 1995.
As with the current civil war in Shamali Province and current war in Syria the version of this story you are told on the likes of CNN and the BBC is simply not true.
Despite the short-form name Czechoslovakia was always a federation of two distinct states - the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore the Soviet bloc at the end of the Cold War the two republics decided to bring the federation to an end and each go their own way as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
They did this through four years of peaceful negotiation in which all aspects such as the division of territory, the voluntary relocation of citizens and protection of citizens wishing to remain were considered and agreed. This is sometimes referred to as; "The Velvet Divorce."
As a result whenever the topic of the wars surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union comes up at Eurovision both the Czechs and the Slovaks tend to sit there quietly looking smug. And deservedly so.
Yugoslavia was on course to follow Czechoslovakia's example and peacefully negotiate its own future. The problem from the American perspective was that while Croatia would become an independent state these negotiations would likely leave Yugoslavia more or less intact under a pro-Russian government.
So as they did in what is now Shamali Province the CIA backed Croat Ultranationalists to overthrow their representatives in the negotiations. This triggered the Croatian civil war and the collapse of the wider Yugoslav negotiations.
Through force of arms the US-backed Croat Ultranationalists then set about creating the biggest Croatian state possible by linking up pockets of the Croat ethnic group across Yugoslavia. As they went they ethnically cleansed non-Croats from the areas in between. Obviously the Yugoslav army moved to stop them. This prompted the US to start backing Bosnian Ultranationalists to divide the Yugoslav army and strengthen the Croats.
The hell that followed produced six nations where before there had only been one. The largest of these was the Serb dominated Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which remained under the pro-Russian Presidency of Slobodan Milošević.
So in 1999 the CIA backed the Ultranationalists of the Greater Albania movement to start a civil war in Yugoslavia's southern Kosovo province. This provided an excuse for a US-led NATO intervention which broke Montenegro away from Serbia and stole the Kosovo province away from Serbia.
With that Yugoslavia finally came to an end and Milošević was deposed.
So when Americans declare that the conviction of Karadzic shows that those responsible for the horrors of the Yugoslav wars have been brought to justice while US Presidents George H Bush and Bill Clinton are walking the streets without so much as an ankle-tag it causes a lot of offence to a lot of people. Particularly those who can point to Screbrenica on a map.
The geographic and ethnic fragmentation that US aggression has wrought in the former Yugoslavia is most clearly on display in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH). As befits a divided nation their national flag is a yellow bloc and a blue bloc divided by a line of stars.
Created by the 1995 Dayton Accords Bosnia & Herzegovina is often described as a federation of two autonomous regions - Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) and the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina. However even that is a mass over-simplification because there's a third federal region - Brčko District - and the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina is actually a loose confederation of 10 Cantons each with their own government and ethnic/religious make-up.
If you take a vague interest in Balkan politics you would know that there has long been a lot of tension between Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. However there has also been longstanding and seemingly growing tensions between the Federation of BiH Cantons - particularly between Muslim (Bosniak) and Christian (Bosnian/Croat) ones.
As such I think it is fair to say that Bosnia & Herzegovina has longstanding and continuing problems when it comes to ethnic and religious integration. In fact looking at the Screbrenica massacre that sounds like a distinct understatement.
Therefore the notion that you would take a vast number of traumatised, predominately Muslim refugees from the war in Syria and then dump them in Bosnia & Herzegovina is utterly insane.
However not as insane as Germany throwing its doors open to those refugees forcing them to trample through Bosnia & Herzegovina without even a word of warning to the 12 local governments.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: This year they were represented by a foursome - Dalal & Deen ft Ana Rucner and Jala.
They had been put together specially for the competition to represent BiH's different ethnic groups. As a Catholic the female singer Dalal was supposed to represent the Serbs of Republika Srpska while the male singer Deen represented the Bosnians. Born in Zagreb, Croatia the Cellist Ana Rucner was supposed to represent the Croats while Jala represented Bosniaks or Muslims more generally.
The title of the song - "Ljubav Je (Love Is)" - seemed intended as a reference to the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
This centred around a young girl named Lubov (Love) being taken on a journey through Russian history. The intention being that as the ceremony ended and the Olympics began it was up to the rest of the world to help write the future of Love in Russia. It was an open invitation for the world to help further the cause of gay-rights in Russia. Unfortunately the world's commitment to gay-rights only extended as far as booing loudly for the next month.
As such this was a contribution to the discussion about Pinkwashing expressed in a very pro-Russian way.
During the Sochi Olympics and the Eurovision Song Contest that followed the contrast between Russian high culture and US low culture became a convenient metaphor for the difference between the US and Russian positions on a range of issues.
The fact that Rucner is an extremely successful classically trained cellist obviously represents that Russian high culture. A Hip-hop artist with three albums to his name Jala equally obviously represents US low culture or "the black music" as its being referred to this year.
In the both the video in support of the song and the stage performance when he appeared Jala seems be to harassing and aggressively invading the space of Rucner. This seemed to be a clear protest against the US' continued harassment of Russia.
The video itself it set in a Grand Masonic Temple with a Star of David clearly visible in the skylight.
Due to a particularly well timed Israeli cheat-sheet I now know that the Star of David has only been used as a symbol of Jewishness since the 17th Century when the Jews of Prague, Czech Republic were allowed to fly a special Jewish flag after they helped repel Swedish invaders. Prior to that it was commonly used to adorn all sorts of buildings purely as a form of decoration.
The Freemasons began life as a sort of trade union for stone masons - literally Free Masons. These master craftsmen in particular would use the Star of David and other pentagram and hexagram designs to decorate their creations. For example the glass doors at the main entrance to the Freemason Grand Temple in London, UK are adorned with a series of Stars of David.
If you follow Internet conspiracy theories you would know that everything bad that happens in the world is the work of either the Freemasons, the Zionists or the Lizard people and often all three working together. As such this inclusion of a Masonic Temple adorned with Stars of David was clearly intended as a mockery of the fascists of Shamali Province who see all their problems as the result of the Grand Zionist Conspiracy.
The stage setting in BiH's only performance in the first semi-final was much more blunt.
It featured musicians wrapped in the foil blankets that are often given to rescued refugees and the survivors of terror attacks. Down the middle of the stage there was a barbed wire fence like those that have sprung up along the Balkan route for refugees. On one side of the fence there was a man dressed in the black leather of the Nazi Waffen SS and a woman dressed as if she were a refugee from northern Syria/Iraq.
What I found interesting was that unlike on CNN or the BBC it was the Bosnian rather than the Serb who was portrayed as the fascist. However I should point out that with the exception of Ana Rucner the ethnicities of the performers was implied rather than expressly stated. As such that is something that was left open to extensive interpretation and therefore the prejudice of the viewer.
Within the context of the stage performance Jala's - the Muslim - harassment and aggressive invasion of Rucner's personal space was intended as a reference to the Cologne sex assaults and the rising fear of sex-mad Muslim refugees. However I should make clear that this seemed intended to reference the discussion that was already taking place rather than declaring all Muslims to be rapists.
The overall tone of the music was very big, dramatic and ominous to highlight the severity of the crisis that Europe and particularly BiH has been plunged into amid war, terrorism and refugees.
Sung as a duet the lyrics about how much she wants to be with him and he wants to be with her this was obviously a song of unity. You could interpret that as a call for unity amongst BiH's 12 regional governments or a more general call for unity amongst European states be they members of the European Union (EU) or not. You might even interpret it as an expression of BiH's yearning to join the EU.
However amid the pro-Russian overtones, the criticism of Shamali Province and the highlighting of the problems Germany has caused I took it as BiH going;
"If being part of the EU means supporting the Nazis in Shamali Province and taking in all these refugees f*ck that. We're reforming Yugoslavia. And then we're going to rejoin the Soviet Union!"
This seemed to be a sentiment shared amongst all the former Yugoslav states. I've already explained how Montenegro took a very pro-Russian, anti-Shamali Province stance.
Slovenia's "Blue & Red" made a bit point of how they share the red, white and blue of the Russian flag. However their mockery of the notion that Russia are the racists of Europe was so well done I'll be including them as one of my stand-outs. If you want a taste of the sort of silliness we've come to expect from the Song Contest do an Internet search for "Taylor Swift Aryan Goddess." It's all true.
Macedonia made a point of how of all the small things the US smashed Yugoslavia into they are the most deserving of help when it comes to refugees. They also savagely mocked Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip who is often referred to as; "The Kebab."
Even Croatia seemed to be craving the safe-harbour that Yugoslavia used to offer before the all the refugees turned up. The big motif of their video in support of "Lighthouse" was space and interstellar travel. According to the lyrics of Neoconservative anthem "Close" by Nick Jonas space is "Just something made up." A claim about as credible as the claim that Shamali Province's problems as due to "Russian Aggression."
Through it's mockery of the US and its black music even the Czech Republic seemed to be going to the former Yugoslav states; "Seems like the only sensible plan. We're about to drunk dial Slovakia. Even if she doesn't want to be in the room this year."
At around 17:30 on 24/5/16 (UK date) I'll may be back to talk about Serbia in more detail later. However if this has seemed like a scratchy read than it is only a fair reflection of the feeling in my throat at the moment.
Edited at around 13:55 on 27/5/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
NATO's 1999 war against Serbia is particularly relevant to the current migration crisis. After all it started life as a migration crisis.
Towards the end of 1996 the Albanian economy which had literally been run as a giant pyramid scheme imploded. In January 1997 the Albanian people took to the streets in protest demanding that the government reimburse the savings they had lost.
On March 1st 1997 (1/3/97) the Prime Minister resigned and on March 2nd (2/3/97) a nationwide state of emergency was imposed. If anything this made the situation worse and widespread rioting spread throughout the country. On March 28th (28/3/97) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed resolution 1101 (1997) authorising a 7000 strong peacekeeping mission to restore order in Albania.
In order to flee the shortlived disorder and the much longer lasting economic hardship a large number of Albanians swarmed across the border into Serbia's southern Kosovo province. In 1998 the Greater Albania movement declared that the significant demographic change this created meant that Kosovo was now part of Albania.
It was the Serbs attempts to deport these large numbers of illegal, economic migrants along with a terrorist campaign by the Greater Albania movement that provided US President Bill Clinton with an excuse to launch a 'humanitarian intervention' to tear Kosovo and Montenegro away from Serbia collapsing Yugoslavia and bring down Milošević.
As such amid Balkan nations there is a very real concern that the flood of refugees and economic migrants making their way along the Balkan route to Germany will trigger a similar conflict. With US President Obama's seeming utter commitment to continuous war everywhere there is a very real worry that NATO forces could soon be sent to Macedonia to tear away it's south-western provinces the same way Clinton tried to tear Kosovo away from Serbia.
Even without such a dramatic US-led re-drawing of the borders of Europe through force the Greater Albania movement is made up almost exclusively of Sunni Muslims. As such across the Balkans there is a general perception that "Muslim" means "Albanian" and "Albanian" means "Thief." As such dumping millions of these 'Thieves's across Balkan nations - particularly Macedonia - is likely to lead to large scale civil unrest and disorder.
With everyone acutely aware of the intense pressure that Macedonia is currently under it fell to Serbia to carry the warning sign about the Greater Albania movement in the Grand Final. After all Macedonia is merely under threat from the Greater Albania movement. Serbia has already suffered at their hands.
Serbia: This year they were represented by the female singer Sanja Vučić. This is an area where I have to be extremely careful about how I phrase what I say next.
This year a lot of the female singers resembled Kim Kardashian to some extent. This is because Armenia made Kim Kardashian's Armenian heritage a large part of their entry. As such is became a convenient shorthand for nations to show their support for Armenian over Azerbaijan in the latest upsurge in fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR).
Kim Kardashian is extremely aesthetically beautiful. This means that she has a very symmetrical face in which all the features such as the eyes, nose, cheekbones etc are very much in proportion with each other. However the more intangible term "attractive" is more complex then that. For example Rihanna is widely considered to be a sex-symbol despite the fact she has quite a large, out of proportion, forehead. A "Fivehead" as she sometimes refers to it.
Sanja Vučić face doesn't have the symmetry of Kim Kardashian instead having some pronounced, out of proportion, features such as her nose and her chin. This is what I would refer to as; "A Strong Face." It belies a personality of a woman who knows exactly what she wants and doesn't take any crap from anyone. At the risk of oversharing this is something I actually find quite attractive.
If I was looking for someone to compare Sanja Vučić to as a sort shorthand to explain her look I would probably have gone with the Aunt Polly character from the UK TV Show "Peaky Blinders." She is the head of the Shelby crime family and part Roma gypsy. There are a lot of Roma in the Balkans meaning that the Roma look is often confused with a Balkan look. Aunt Polly is played by Helen McCrory who is married to Damian Lewis of "Homeland" fame.
Liberally interpreting the rules the UK's Song Contest entry this year was the TV Show Peaky Blinders. What I found interesting is that during the semi-final and final stage performance the Serbian team caked the make-up on Sanja Vučić to make her resemble Kim Kardashian as much as possible in order to avoid being interpreted as giving support to the UK.
In her biography Vučić is said to have worked with opera singers to develop a voice that is superior to both Beyonce and Aretha Franklin. This not only references the American black music but makes clear that she is entitled to look down and laugh at it.
Probably the most interesting detail from Sanja Vučić's biography is that she is studying Arabic at university level. Across northern Europe for Poland to Germany the concerns about the migration crisis is about how to integrate a large number of Muslims. In those nations Muslims are still viewed as a bit of an exotic novelty meaning there is a great fear of the unknown.
By highlighting that Vučić is fluent in Arabic at an advanced level Serbia was making the point that in the Balkans being a Muslim really isn't a novelty. They have large Muslim populations of their own and the region is emerging as a skiing holiday destination from rich Arabs in the Gulf States. Therefore the objections from the Balkan nations are not driven by a fear of the unknown but extensive experience of the problem.
In the performance video in support of the song Sanja Vučić seems to be channelling her inner Amy Winehouse who was of course Jewish. This seemed to be a direct insult to Shamali Province. After all nothing is likely to antagonise a nation led by former members of the Nazi Waffen SS as reminding them they failed in their task of wiping out all the Jews during the Nazi holocaust.
Featuring lyrics such as; "Gotta fight my way out of your hands,//find the shelter from the pain" the song Goodbye (Shelter) supposedly tells the story of one woman's personal experience escaping a domestically violent relationship. During the final performance Vučić sung this song in a grand black, feathered gown. This made her look just like the black eagle at the heart of the Albanian flag.
So although no overt reference was made you should have been left in no doubt as to who was the perpetrator of the domestic violence in this case.
If Shamali Province had wanted to be eligible for competition this year that is the sort of thing they should have done.
15:30 on 27/5/16 (UK date).
The most interesting opposition to the myriad of problems facing Europe come from the blocs of nations that made up the former Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia and the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
One of the big political developments since the last Song Contest was the conviction in March 2016 of Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for 10 offences of crimes against humanity committed during the wars that brought about the collapse of Yugoslavia. These included the genocide of at least 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the town of Screbrenica in July 1995.
As with the current civil war in Shamali Province and current war in Syria the version of this story you are told on the likes of CNN and the BBC is simply not true.
Despite the short-form name Czechoslovakia was always a federation of two distinct states - the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and therefore the Soviet bloc at the end of the Cold War the two republics decided to bring the federation to an end and each go their own way as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
They did this through four years of peaceful negotiation in which all aspects such as the division of territory, the voluntary relocation of citizens and protection of citizens wishing to remain were considered and agreed. This is sometimes referred to as; "The Velvet Divorce."
As a result whenever the topic of the wars surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union comes up at Eurovision both the Czechs and the Slovaks tend to sit there quietly looking smug. And deservedly so.
Yugoslavia was on course to follow Czechoslovakia's example and peacefully negotiate its own future. The problem from the American perspective was that while Croatia would become an independent state these negotiations would likely leave Yugoslavia more or less intact under a pro-Russian government.
So as they did in what is now Shamali Province the CIA backed Croat Ultranationalists to overthrow their representatives in the negotiations. This triggered the Croatian civil war and the collapse of the wider Yugoslav negotiations.
Through force of arms the US-backed Croat Ultranationalists then set about creating the biggest Croatian state possible by linking up pockets of the Croat ethnic group across Yugoslavia. As they went they ethnically cleansed non-Croats from the areas in between. Obviously the Yugoslav army moved to stop them. This prompted the US to start backing Bosnian Ultranationalists to divide the Yugoslav army and strengthen the Croats.
The hell that followed produced six nations where before there had only been one. The largest of these was the Serb dominated Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which remained under the pro-Russian Presidency of Slobodan Milošević.
So in 1999 the CIA backed the Ultranationalists of the Greater Albania movement to start a civil war in Yugoslavia's southern Kosovo province. This provided an excuse for a US-led NATO intervention which broke Montenegro away from Serbia and stole the Kosovo province away from Serbia.
With that Yugoslavia finally came to an end and Milošević was deposed.
So when Americans declare that the conviction of Karadzic shows that those responsible for the horrors of the Yugoslav wars have been brought to justice while US Presidents George H Bush and Bill Clinton are walking the streets without so much as an ankle-tag it causes a lot of offence to a lot of people. Particularly those who can point to Screbrenica on a map.
The geographic and ethnic fragmentation that US aggression has wrought in the former Yugoslavia is most clearly on display in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH). As befits a divided nation their national flag is a yellow bloc and a blue bloc divided by a line of stars.
Created by the 1995 Dayton Accords Bosnia & Herzegovina is often described as a federation of two autonomous regions - Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) and the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina. However even that is a mass over-simplification because there's a third federal region - Brčko District - and the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina is actually a loose confederation of 10 Cantons each with their own government and ethnic/religious make-up.
If you take a vague interest in Balkan politics you would know that there has long been a lot of tension between Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. However there has also been longstanding and seemingly growing tensions between the Federation of BiH Cantons - particularly between Muslim (Bosniak) and Christian (Bosnian/Croat) ones.
As such I think it is fair to say that Bosnia & Herzegovina has longstanding and continuing problems when it comes to ethnic and religious integration. In fact looking at the Screbrenica massacre that sounds like a distinct understatement.
Therefore the notion that you would take a vast number of traumatised, predominately Muslim refugees from the war in Syria and then dump them in Bosnia & Herzegovina is utterly insane.
However not as insane as Germany throwing its doors open to those refugees forcing them to trample through Bosnia & Herzegovina without even a word of warning to the 12 local governments.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: This year they were represented by a foursome - Dalal & Deen ft Ana Rucner and Jala.
They had been put together specially for the competition to represent BiH's different ethnic groups. As a Catholic the female singer Dalal was supposed to represent the Serbs of Republika Srpska while the male singer Deen represented the Bosnians. Born in Zagreb, Croatia the Cellist Ana Rucner was supposed to represent the Croats while Jala represented Bosniaks or Muslims more generally.
The title of the song - "Ljubav Je (Love Is)" - seemed intended as a reference to the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
This centred around a young girl named Lubov (Love) being taken on a journey through Russian history. The intention being that as the ceremony ended and the Olympics began it was up to the rest of the world to help write the future of Love in Russia. It was an open invitation for the world to help further the cause of gay-rights in Russia. Unfortunately the world's commitment to gay-rights only extended as far as booing loudly for the next month.
As such this was a contribution to the discussion about Pinkwashing expressed in a very pro-Russian way.
During the Sochi Olympics and the Eurovision Song Contest that followed the contrast between Russian high culture and US low culture became a convenient metaphor for the difference between the US and Russian positions on a range of issues.
The fact that Rucner is an extremely successful classically trained cellist obviously represents that Russian high culture. A Hip-hop artist with three albums to his name Jala equally obviously represents US low culture or "the black music" as its being referred to this year.
In the both the video in support of the song and the stage performance when he appeared Jala seems be to harassing and aggressively invading the space of Rucner. This seemed to be a clear protest against the US' continued harassment of Russia.
The video itself it set in a Grand Masonic Temple with a Star of David clearly visible in the skylight.
Due to a particularly well timed Israeli cheat-sheet I now know that the Star of David has only been used as a symbol of Jewishness since the 17th Century when the Jews of Prague, Czech Republic were allowed to fly a special Jewish flag after they helped repel Swedish invaders. Prior to that it was commonly used to adorn all sorts of buildings purely as a form of decoration.
The Freemasons began life as a sort of trade union for stone masons - literally Free Masons. These master craftsmen in particular would use the Star of David and other pentagram and hexagram designs to decorate their creations. For example the glass doors at the main entrance to the Freemason Grand Temple in London, UK are adorned with a series of Stars of David.
If you follow Internet conspiracy theories you would know that everything bad that happens in the world is the work of either the Freemasons, the Zionists or the Lizard people and often all three working together. As such this inclusion of a Masonic Temple adorned with Stars of David was clearly intended as a mockery of the fascists of Shamali Province who see all their problems as the result of the Grand Zionist Conspiracy.
The stage setting in BiH's only performance in the first semi-final was much more blunt.
It featured musicians wrapped in the foil blankets that are often given to rescued refugees and the survivors of terror attacks. Down the middle of the stage there was a barbed wire fence like those that have sprung up along the Balkan route for refugees. On one side of the fence there was a man dressed in the black leather of the Nazi Waffen SS and a woman dressed as if she were a refugee from northern Syria/Iraq.
What I found interesting was that unlike on CNN or the BBC it was the Bosnian rather than the Serb who was portrayed as the fascist. However I should point out that with the exception of Ana Rucner the ethnicities of the performers was implied rather than expressly stated. As such that is something that was left open to extensive interpretation and therefore the prejudice of the viewer.
Within the context of the stage performance Jala's - the Muslim - harassment and aggressive invasion of Rucner's personal space was intended as a reference to the Cologne sex assaults and the rising fear of sex-mad Muslim refugees. However I should make clear that this seemed intended to reference the discussion that was already taking place rather than declaring all Muslims to be rapists.
The overall tone of the music was very big, dramatic and ominous to highlight the severity of the crisis that Europe and particularly BiH has been plunged into amid war, terrorism and refugees.
Sung as a duet the lyrics about how much she wants to be with him and he wants to be with her this was obviously a song of unity. You could interpret that as a call for unity amongst BiH's 12 regional governments or a more general call for unity amongst European states be they members of the European Union (EU) or not. You might even interpret it as an expression of BiH's yearning to join the EU.
However amid the pro-Russian overtones, the criticism of Shamali Province and the highlighting of the problems Germany has caused I took it as BiH going;
"If being part of the EU means supporting the Nazis in Shamali Province and taking in all these refugees f*ck that. We're reforming Yugoslavia. And then we're going to rejoin the Soviet Union!"
This seemed to be a sentiment shared amongst all the former Yugoslav states. I've already explained how Montenegro took a very pro-Russian, anti-Shamali Province stance.
Slovenia's "Blue & Red" made a bit point of how they share the red, white and blue of the Russian flag. However their mockery of the notion that Russia are the racists of Europe was so well done I'll be including them as one of my stand-outs. If you want a taste of the sort of silliness we've come to expect from the Song Contest do an Internet search for "Taylor Swift Aryan Goddess." It's all true.
Macedonia made a point of how of all the small things the US smashed Yugoslavia into they are the most deserving of help when it comes to refugees. They also savagely mocked Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip who is often referred to as; "The Kebab."
Even Croatia seemed to be craving the safe-harbour that Yugoslavia used to offer before the all the refugees turned up. The big motif of their video in support of "Lighthouse" was space and interstellar travel. According to the lyrics of Neoconservative anthem "Close" by Nick Jonas space is "Just something made up." A claim about as credible as the claim that Shamali Province's problems as due to "Russian Aggression."
Through it's mockery of the US and its black music even the Czech Republic seemed to be going to the former Yugoslav states; "Seems like the only sensible plan. We're about to drunk dial Slovakia. Even if she doesn't want to be in the room this year."
At around 17:30 on 24/5/16 (UK date) I'll may be back to talk about Serbia in more detail later. However if this has seemed like a scratchy read than it is only a fair reflection of the feeling in my throat at the moment.
Edited at around 13:55 on 27/5/16 (UK date) to add above and below;
NATO's 1999 war against Serbia is particularly relevant to the current migration crisis. After all it started life as a migration crisis.
Towards the end of 1996 the Albanian economy which had literally been run as a giant pyramid scheme imploded. In January 1997 the Albanian people took to the streets in protest demanding that the government reimburse the savings they had lost.
On March 1st 1997 (1/3/97) the Prime Minister resigned and on March 2nd (2/3/97) a nationwide state of emergency was imposed. If anything this made the situation worse and widespread rioting spread throughout the country. On March 28th (28/3/97) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed resolution 1101 (1997) authorising a 7000 strong peacekeeping mission to restore order in Albania.
In order to flee the shortlived disorder and the much longer lasting economic hardship a large number of Albanians swarmed across the border into Serbia's southern Kosovo province. In 1998 the Greater Albania movement declared that the significant demographic change this created meant that Kosovo was now part of Albania.
It was the Serbs attempts to deport these large numbers of illegal, economic migrants along with a terrorist campaign by the Greater Albania movement that provided US President Bill Clinton with an excuse to launch a 'humanitarian intervention' to tear Kosovo and Montenegro away from Serbia collapsing Yugoslavia and bring down Milošević.
As such amid Balkan nations there is a very real concern that the flood of refugees and economic migrants making their way along the Balkan route to Germany will trigger a similar conflict. With US President Obama's seeming utter commitment to continuous war everywhere there is a very real worry that NATO forces could soon be sent to Macedonia to tear away it's south-western provinces the same way Clinton tried to tear Kosovo away from Serbia.
Even without such a dramatic US-led re-drawing of the borders of Europe through force the Greater Albania movement is made up almost exclusively of Sunni Muslims. As such across the Balkans there is a general perception that "Muslim" means "Albanian" and "Albanian" means "Thief." As such dumping millions of these 'Thieves's across Balkan nations - particularly Macedonia - is likely to lead to large scale civil unrest and disorder.
With everyone acutely aware of the intense pressure that Macedonia is currently under it fell to Serbia to carry the warning sign about the Greater Albania movement in the Grand Final. After all Macedonia is merely under threat from the Greater Albania movement. Serbia has already suffered at their hands.
Serbia: This year they were represented by the female singer Sanja Vučić. This is an area where I have to be extremely careful about how I phrase what I say next.
This year a lot of the female singers resembled Kim Kardashian to some extent. This is because Armenia made Kim Kardashian's Armenian heritage a large part of their entry. As such is became a convenient shorthand for nations to show their support for Armenian over Azerbaijan in the latest upsurge in fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR).
Kim Kardashian is extremely aesthetically beautiful. This means that she has a very symmetrical face in which all the features such as the eyes, nose, cheekbones etc are very much in proportion with each other. However the more intangible term "attractive" is more complex then that. For example Rihanna is widely considered to be a sex-symbol despite the fact she has quite a large, out of proportion, forehead. A "Fivehead" as she sometimes refers to it.
Sanja Vučić face doesn't have the symmetry of Kim Kardashian instead having some pronounced, out of proportion, features such as her nose and her chin. This is what I would refer to as; "A Strong Face." It belies a personality of a woman who knows exactly what she wants and doesn't take any crap from anyone. At the risk of oversharing this is something I actually find quite attractive.
If I was looking for someone to compare Sanja Vučić to as a sort shorthand to explain her look I would probably have gone with the Aunt Polly character from the UK TV Show "Peaky Blinders." She is the head of the Shelby crime family and part Roma gypsy. There are a lot of Roma in the Balkans meaning that the Roma look is often confused with a Balkan look. Aunt Polly is played by Helen McCrory who is married to Damian Lewis of "Homeland" fame.
Liberally interpreting the rules the UK's Song Contest entry this year was the TV Show Peaky Blinders. What I found interesting is that during the semi-final and final stage performance the Serbian team caked the make-up on Sanja Vučić to make her resemble Kim Kardashian as much as possible in order to avoid being interpreted as giving support to the UK.
In her biography Vučić is said to have worked with opera singers to develop a voice that is superior to both Beyonce and Aretha Franklin. This not only references the American black music but makes clear that she is entitled to look down and laugh at it.
Probably the most interesting detail from Sanja Vučić's biography is that she is studying Arabic at university level. Across northern Europe for Poland to Germany the concerns about the migration crisis is about how to integrate a large number of Muslims. In those nations Muslims are still viewed as a bit of an exotic novelty meaning there is a great fear of the unknown.
By highlighting that Vučić is fluent in Arabic at an advanced level Serbia was making the point that in the Balkans being a Muslim really isn't a novelty. They have large Muslim populations of their own and the region is emerging as a skiing holiday destination from rich Arabs in the Gulf States. Therefore the objections from the Balkan nations are not driven by a fear of the unknown but extensive experience of the problem.
In the performance video in support of the song Sanja Vučić seems to be channelling her inner Amy Winehouse who was of course Jewish. This seemed to be a direct insult to Shamali Province. After all nothing is likely to antagonise a nation led by former members of the Nazi Waffen SS as reminding them they failed in their task of wiping out all the Jews during the Nazi holocaust.
Featuring lyrics such as; "Gotta fight my way out of your hands,//find the shelter from the pain" the song Goodbye (Shelter) supposedly tells the story of one woman's personal experience escaping a domestically violent relationship. During the final performance Vučić sung this song in a grand black, feathered gown. This made her look just like the black eagle at the heart of the Albanian flag.
So although no overt reference was made you should have been left in no doubt as to who was the perpetrator of the domestic violence in this case.
If Shamali Province had wanted to be eligible for competition this year that is the sort of thing they should have done.
15:30 on 27/5/16 (UK date).
Monday, 23 May 2016
The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Final: Pt.6
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 5; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-2016-eurovision-song-contest-grand_19.html
Earlier I looked at
all those nations that had supported Shamali Province this year. I also looked
at those nations that had supported Shamali Province last year but switched
their vote this year. Now I want to look at those nations that didn't support Shamali
Province last year and some more of those who'd switched their vote from last
year.
Russia: Much like
Israel at Eurovision Russia's main problem is not such coming up with an idea
for an entry. Instead it is then dumbing down that idea to the point it can be
understood by mere mortals.
This year they seem
to have achieved that with a comparatively very simplified entry. Their three
minute song dealt only with really three main issues rather than the three
issues a second the Russians normally bring to the table.
Russia's other big
problem this year was Shamali Province. Their ineligible entry this year was an
overt reference to the mass deportation of Tatars (Turkmen) from Crimea by
Soviet Union in 1944. It was a none too subtle protest against Crimea's
decision to rejoin Russia during the collapse of Ukraine and the emergence of
Shamali Province. As they were mocked for by Lithuania Shamali Province very
much viewed any potential victory in the Song Contest as a sign that NATO's
mass invasion of Russia could begin.
This level of
aggression is not something Russia had the option of simply ignoring.
Featuring lyrics such
as; "We will never let our loving come undone//Everything we had is
staying unbroken" Russia's entry this year was intended to assure the
people of Crimea that Russia will not turn its back on them and they will not
be abandoned to Shamali Province. The title of the song "You Are The Only
One" was intended to join Lithuania in mocking Shamali Province's
misconception that they had been included in this year's contest as a sign of
support.
Despite its rather
sarcastic tone the song actually contained some constructive criticism of how
Shamali Province is being run into the ground. The oft repeated chorus included
the lyrics; "Thunder n' lightning it's gettin exciting" and "My
love is rising the story's unwinding//Together we'll make it 'n' reach for the
stars." This very much highlighted
the current political atmosphere in Shamali Province which is essentially
Fascism 101.
Through the thunder and lighting of war the people have become
whipped up into a frenzy where all their problems are seen as the result of some ethnic
other rather than the result of their own failings. Much like the entry test in the
video supporting Lithuania's song the "stars" the US-backed junta
keeps lunging at could be interpreted as the Star of David on the Israeli flag or a reference to Moldova's entry.
In the video in
support of Russia's entry the singer Sergey Lazarev keeps trying to reach a
beautiful woman but the two are kept apart by an unseen force. This is very
heavily inspired by the video for "Close" by Nick Jonas featuring
Tove Lo.
As such Russia seemed to be joining Armenia in the mockery of Tove Lo
and her native Sweden over her antics during last year's Song Contest. That led
to her naked breasts being the only thing Twitter users could find about Sweden for most of that weekend.
However by targeting
the Close they were expressing particular alarm at her decision to work with a
Jonas brother which should be cause for concern for us all. After all the Jonas
Brothers were genetically engineered in a secret lab at Mousewitz before
completing their final training at Duckhau.
In their early
incarnation the Jonas Brothers were used to brainwash a generation of American
teenagers into supporting the Silver Ring Thing. This was used to promote the
idea of sexual abstinence through the wearing Silver Purity Ring to indicate
that you are married to God.
Created by Denny
Pattyn by 1995 the Silver Ring Thing is just another aspect of Evangelical
Christian movement that not only opposes gay-rights but actively supports
gay-conversion 'therapy' that simply does not work.
They are also extremely
opposed to any form of sex education or the use of contraception. Breaking the
link between US President George W Bush and the Silver Ring movement to allow
US aid programs to fund the use on condoms was one of the greatest victories in
the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa.
My most enduring
memory of the Jonas Brothers though is when they appeared on a UK chatshow
presented by Gabby Logan. She is also a BBC Sports presenter who has worked on
many major sporting events including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
As a running feature
for the chatshow guests were asked to bring in and talk about the book that
most influenced them as a child. This produced the usual round of Charlotte's
Webs, To Kill a Mocking Bird and various Roald Dahl novels. Nick Jonas however
recommended that radical Neoconservative tome "The Fountain Head" by
Ayn Rand.
I swear Gabby Logan
then shot him a look as if she wanted to lean in, pat him on the knee and go; "I don't
care who you are. One Nazi salute and you're straight out the door."
So when people say
that the Jonas Brothers are a neoconservative conspiracy to destroy the earth
and all the people living upon it they're normally only about 20% joking.
Joe Jonas is now
trying to target the dance music crowd under the name "DNCE." Even by
the standards of hipsters his backing band seem particularly dead-eyed.
Although the unseen
forces succeeded in keeping the star-crossed lovers apart in the video blocks,
rather like stepping stones kept emerging as if trying to build a bridge
between the two. Russia brought this motif into both their semi-final and final
stage performances. On the stage backdrop animated white blocks were projected.
The twist was that some of these blocks took on physical form being pushed out
from the backdrop allowing Lazarev to climb them.
This was done in
reference to an incident in November 2015 when Turkmen terrorists blew up all
the pylons carrying electricity to Crimea. This caused a total blackout on the
peninsula of 1.9 million people just at the start of the brutal Black Sea
winter. Demonstrating their lack of control over the country the Kiev junta
attempted to repair the pylons but were stopped by the Turkmen terrorists.
With hospitals and other vital services being
forced to close amid freezing temperatures some 28 civilians were killed as a
direct result of this terrorist activity.
In response Russia
set about building a series of what are termed "Power Bridges" to
supply Crimea with electricity directly from the Russian mainland. They were
completed on May 12th (12/5/16) the day of the second Song Contest semi-final.
The Turkmen have threatened to blow them up too.
In the run-up to and
throughout much of this year's contest there seemed to be a general consensus
that this was going to be Russia's year. In order to avoid it being blatantly
obvious that this was being done in protest against the continuing economic
sanctions on Russia this forced Russia to provide a strong entry. Their dumbing
down was actually part of this effort.
Unfortunately
Russia's mass of creative energy couldn't be suppressed for the entire week.
In his biography a
point was made of the fact that Sergey Lazarev won all of the prizes at the
2015 Russian Music Awards. The Russians brought this up themselves in order to
invite constructive criticism of Russia's somewhat questionable domestic
politics. Particularly things like Vladimir Putin's 80% approval ratings.
They continued this
theme in the jury voting for the first semi-final which as always took place on
Monday (10/5/16) evening/night following the dress rehearsal. The results of the
jury voting are supposed to be kept as a strictly guarded secret until the
public have voted following the semi-final broadcast. However one of the
Russian jurists decided to broadcast the whole thing live on Periscope. This
prompted an uproar and a formal investigation.
Knowing exactly what
they were doing the Russians were extremely careful not to broadcast any of the
actual details of the voting so no action was taken. However the incident did
invite further questions about 'Russian Voting' while introducing Periscope into
the technical discussions within the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as
Eurovision is formally known.
France actually tried
doing much the same thing during the week in a much more clumsy manner. On May
11th (11/5/16) that a 19 year old woman had used Periscope to broadcast her own
suicide by jumping in front of a train at the Elgy station around 40km (25
miles) south of Paris. This obviously occurred outside of the Song Contest
bubble and carried with it a death toll. As such it far from in keeping with
the spirit of the competition and therefore Russia's effort was far superior.
However as is often
Russia's problem I think their Periscope stunt went over a lot of people's
heads. Missing the point they instead viewed it as Russian misbehaviour and
marked Russia down accordingly in the final.
Aside from winning a
suspiciously high number of Russian Music Awards and selling out nationwide
tours in minutes Sergey Lazarev is also a highly successful actor and TV
presenter in Russia. In fact it was his work dubbing the Zac Efron role in
"High School Musical" helped me explain the voiceover aspect of the
animation trend at this year's contest.
However his wholesome
reputation was tarnished during the contest when photographs emerged of Lazarev
engaging in a pornographic photoshoot as a young man. I cannot comment on all
of these photographs because only a handful of them were deemed fit to print. The
fact that I am using phrases like "Fit to Print" should be clear
enough indication to you of the role these photographs play in the ever present
sex, nudity, censorship debate
The photographs which
were published show Lazarev sitting fully nude on a bed with his back to the
camera. This was very much in the style of the postcard for Estonia's entry
which saw Juri Pootsman sitting fully nude with his back to the camera on a
jetty before diving into the lake exposing his pert boy buttocks. As I said in covering
that at the time this was a reference to the Pinkwashing debate and a little
wink of apology to Russia.
In fact despite the
claims that Russia were furious and humiliated by the leak of these pictures the
rumour I've heard is that Russian intelligence left them somewhere for private
Estonia hackers who support Shamali Province to find. This is of course the
sort of spy-game we've seen with Wikileaks and then Edwards Snowden. Even
before this story broke I'd detected a little warning in Estonia's entry to its
young activists not to embarrass themselves by supporting Shamali Province.
Again though I think
this sort of sophisticated spy-trick went over the heads of a lot of people.
Also while there are certainly parties that are allowed to be critical of Russia's
treatment at the hands of the Eurovision gay-rights-for-gays mob Russia is most
certainly not one of them. Any attempt by Russia to do so is only going to
provoke a backlash.
The other problem
with the photographs is that they had a very strong sado-masochistic,
misogynist tone to them. Lazarev is shown either holding a woodsaw to the
throat of a semi-naked woman handcuffed to a radiator or forcing the woman to
kiss and suck on the saw.
This of course was
done in the context of a professional photoshoot between consenting adults. As
such it was intended to send the message that Shamali Province's Jamala and her
fellow Turkmen Islamofascists get positively sexually aroused by the prospect of
engaging in a bit of domestic violence. Or "Domestic Terrorism" as it
is more often referred to.
Again though I think
that might have gone right over the heads of the squishy, liberal Eurovision
crowd. Particularly amongst those trapped in nations where the news media
aren't allowed to discuss Islamofascist terrorism.
Despite understanding it even I sort
of got the impression that Russia were saying that they wanted to slit Jamala's throat. That's still
quite a strong statement for Eurovision.
Belarus: I largely dealt with their entry at the time of the second semi-final. However the title "Help You To Fly" was primarily intended as a clear reference to the Minsk Protocol.
Drawn up by both parties to Shamali Province's civil war alongside the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and endorsed by the so-called "Normandy Four" (Shamali Province, Russia, Germany, France) the Minsk Protocol is not a grand Zionist conspiracy to subjugate Shamali Province. Instead it is a blueprint to stop the people of what used to be Ukraine tearing their nation apart.
Everyone really wants the US-backed junta to hurry up and implement it.
Moldova: One of the stranger claims about Shamali Province is that the US had to overthrow the Ukrainian government to allow Russia to establish a strip of land through Odessa linking the Russian mainland to the ethnically Russian Transnistria region of Moldova. This is why the US has to be allowed to deploy forces to Moldova.
Logically this obviously an extremely difficult concept for rational people to get their heads around. Particularly in Moldova.
In her biography much is made of the fact that their singer Lidia Isac
was born in Russia and is hugely popular in nations with large
ethnically Russian populations such as Latvia. In 1993 she won a music
competition in Yalta, Crimea which hosted the famous 1945 Yalta
Conference at which the post-World War Two map of Europe was drawn. Isac
is probably most popular though in central Asian nations such as Kyrgyzstan.
It is with these nations along with some in eastern Europe that Russia
wants to establish its Eurasian Union (EU) to rival the European Union
(EU).
Featuring lyrics like; "Still I believe, I’m holding on//I didn’t mean to let you down" Moldova's entry "Falling Stars" sounded quite a lot like a call to arms to ethnic Russians living in areas Transnistria to prepare to once again be united by the Russian Motherland.
However with a chorus featuring the lyrics; "All of our love turned into dust//We’re the brightest falling stars" it hardly expressed optimism at the success of the Russian Motherland and the Eurasian Union. As such it seemed to be mocking the US conspiracy theory over Transnistria while giving Shamali Province a particular headache as they tried to decode the contradictions.
During Thursday's (12/5/16) second semi-final which featured the Republic of Ireland the UK suddenly discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb in the Lansdown area of Bath. The Irish Rugby Union team play at the Lansdowne Road ground in Dublin.
What is interesting about the Irish Rugby Union team is that it represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Before each game they have to play the anthems of both nations. As their anthem Irish rugby fans have adopted the song; "The Fields of Athenry."
In the afternoon before Saturday's (14/5/16) Grand Final a mass brawl between two groups of immigrant workers broke out at Moscow's Khovanskoye cemetery. This obviously highlighted that despite popular misconception Russia has an ethnically diverse population including recent immigrants. It also invoked The Fields of Athenry which has lyrics about watching the last star fall as the fields low lie from famine.
I thought this was rather a good riposte to the UK's out of bubble antics. However it also occurred outside of the Song Contest bubble meaning that it might have irritated people. Coming after the Friday (13/5/16) jury vote though it would not have had an effect on that vote.
The Russian Grand Final stage show which was probably the main factor in the jury vote did end with an animation of a woman trying to catch a falling star in clear reference to Moldova's entry.
As such it seemed that Russia and Moldova went beyond merely expressing support for each into ganging up together to bully Shamali Province.
Exciting as this is at around 14:00 on 23/5/16 (UK date) I really need to clean my kitchen. It's starting to become an issue.
Edited at around 15:50 on 23/5/16 (UK date) to add;
Cyprus: The reason why Shamali Province's entry this year was ineligible is that it broke possibly the only non-negotiable rule within Eurovision. Song's cannot be overtly political.
The reason why this rule is considered so important is that it forces competitors to get creative driving up standards across the Eurovision area and within the competition. Without it every song would simply descend into a Grindcore (very heavy metal) tirade against a nation's neighbours.
Much like Montenegro Cyprus decided to protest Shamali Province's inclusion by entering a Grindcore tirade.
The name of the band "Minus One" seemed to be a recommendation of how the juries should score Shamali Province this year. The song title "Alter Ego" is a reference to the hidden, Islamofascist identity of the Turkmen terrorists whom Shamali Province's Jamala is demanding we all feel sorry for. As with Montenegro the use of very masculine rock music contributes to the Pinkwashing/Gay-rights debate.
It is also quite clear that Cyprus are really not happy at the US suggestion that the world suddenly decides to overlook the 1974 invasion and continued occupation of northern Cyprus by Turkey.
The video in support of the song shows the band primarily playing beneath electricity pylons. Like the ones the Turkmen blew up in Crimea.
It also shows a Ford Mustang car being driven along a deserted road. This was a reference to the 2014 film "Mustang" which the Obama administration ordered be denied the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Feature as not to embarrass Vice President Joe Biden.
As with Belarus the video also features heavily a Grey Wolf. This is intended as a reference to the Grey Wolves of Shamali Province and the Turkish Grey Wolves in order to highlight the fact that although there may be no shared history the two groups are now very firmly linked.
Clearly in their protest against falling standards in the Song Contest subtly was not what Cyprus was aiming for this year.
In both the video and both stage performances the lead singer wore a hooded, cloak-like black coat. This could be described as a "Male Abiya" in reference to the more traditional blue Abiya that Jamala wore during her Grand Final performance. The intention being to remind people that this wasn't the Islamofascists celebrating the concept of multi-culturalism.
The video also featured a woman who bore something of a resemblence to Kim Kardashian. This was a little nod to the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR) dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan and one that was quite common this year.
The main point though was that this woman was dressed in Sado-Masochistic-style leather and chains. This was to make the point that there was at least one woman at this year's Song Contest who gets positively fizzy in the knickers at the prospect of engaging in some domestic violence.
The video also invoked the white steps used during Russia's stage performances. As such I'm becoming less and less convinced that Russia was genuinely outraged when Sergey Lazarev's porn pictures were leaked by those courageous Estonia hackers.
In their own stage performances members of the band were locked in their own personal cages/jail cells. The message being that there were certain competitors - who were never overtly named - who should be locked up for persistant and grevious rule violations.
This was a sentiment echoed by Bulgaria with their song "If Love Were A Crime" by Poli Genova. As a former Soviet bloc nation which has now joined the European Union (EU) this was them going; "If supporting Shamali Province is the EU's idea of love then we should all be in prison."
Following the frankly ludicrious suggestion that Shamali Province had even competed in let alone won this year's Song Contest Swedish intelligence blew up one of their own television transmission towers in Boras on Sunday (15/5/16). After all even the suggestion that the 2017 contest be held in Shamali Province rather brings to mind that George Orwell quote;
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Greece: Their song "Utopian Land" was the now traditional complaint about the economic crisis and the European Union (EU) bailout measures. The general tone of it being; "Yeah(!) Join the EU(!) It's Great(!) Everyone's really rich(!) Everybody's happy(!) No-one ever argues(!)"
One of the big, long-running disputes between the EU and Greece has been the Greeks rather lavish higher education system. This is prepared to pay for every single Greek citizen to obtain not only Batchelors and Masters degrees but also PHD's all for free.
The band Argo is made up of a mix of classically trained professional musicians and self-taught folk musicians. This obviously poses the question of whether everyone really needs a PHD?
Featuring the lyric: "Waiting for the plane//for two hours straight//I got some pickles and my friend has got the drinks//Vodka it is, then, and whatever else time brings" Greece was making the point that their economy would recover a lot quicker if they were allowed to resume exports to the large Russian market.
The bandname "Argo" is a reference to the 2012 film "Argo" which explores the link between the CIA and Hollywood when it comes to creating fake propaganda stories.
The folk musicans in the band come from and are expert in the musical traditions of Greece's Pontian region. This sits on the Black Sea coast. It allows the Greeks to go; "We know we sit on the coast of the Black Sea. We know that Bulgaria sits on the shores of the Black Sea. We also know that Russia borders the Black Sea. As does Shamali Province..."
"...Are there any other nations we can think of that border the Black Sea(?)"
17:05 on 23/5/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:30 on 23/5/16 (UK date) to add: Greek Lyrics. Above.
Edited at around 15:50 on 23/5/16 (UK date) to add;
Cyprus: The reason why Shamali Province's entry this year was ineligible is that it broke possibly the only non-negotiable rule within Eurovision. Song's cannot be overtly political.
The reason why this rule is considered so important is that it forces competitors to get creative driving up standards across the Eurovision area and within the competition. Without it every song would simply descend into a Grindcore (very heavy metal) tirade against a nation's neighbours.
Much like Montenegro Cyprus decided to protest Shamali Province's inclusion by entering a Grindcore tirade.
The name of the band "Minus One" seemed to be a recommendation of how the juries should score Shamali Province this year. The song title "Alter Ego" is a reference to the hidden, Islamofascist identity of the Turkmen terrorists whom Shamali Province's Jamala is demanding we all feel sorry for. As with Montenegro the use of very masculine rock music contributes to the Pinkwashing/Gay-rights debate.
It is also quite clear that Cyprus are really not happy at the US suggestion that the world suddenly decides to overlook the 1974 invasion and continued occupation of northern Cyprus by Turkey.
The video in support of the song shows the band primarily playing beneath electricity pylons. Like the ones the Turkmen blew up in Crimea.
It also shows a Ford Mustang car being driven along a deserted road. This was a reference to the 2014 film "Mustang" which the Obama administration ordered be denied the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Feature as not to embarrass Vice President Joe Biden.
As with Belarus the video also features heavily a Grey Wolf. This is intended as a reference to the Grey Wolves of Shamali Province and the Turkish Grey Wolves in order to highlight the fact that although there may be no shared history the two groups are now very firmly linked.
Clearly in their protest against falling standards in the Song Contest subtly was not what Cyprus was aiming for this year.
In both the video and both stage performances the lead singer wore a hooded, cloak-like black coat. This could be described as a "Male Abiya" in reference to the more traditional blue Abiya that Jamala wore during her Grand Final performance. The intention being to remind people that this wasn't the Islamofascists celebrating the concept of multi-culturalism.
The video also featured a woman who bore something of a resemblence to Kim Kardashian. This was a little nod to the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR) dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan and one that was quite common this year.
The main point though was that this woman was dressed in Sado-Masochistic-style leather and chains. This was to make the point that there was at least one woman at this year's Song Contest who gets positively fizzy in the knickers at the prospect of engaging in some domestic violence.
The video also invoked the white steps used during Russia's stage performances. As such I'm becoming less and less convinced that Russia was genuinely outraged when Sergey Lazarev's porn pictures were leaked by those courageous Estonia hackers.
In their own stage performances members of the band were locked in their own personal cages/jail cells. The message being that there were certain competitors - who were never overtly named - who should be locked up for persistant and grevious rule violations.
This was a sentiment echoed by Bulgaria with their song "If Love Were A Crime" by Poli Genova. As a former Soviet bloc nation which has now joined the European Union (EU) this was them going; "If supporting Shamali Province is the EU's idea of love then we should all be in prison."
Following the frankly ludicrious suggestion that Shamali Province had even competed in let alone won this year's Song Contest Swedish intelligence blew up one of their own television transmission towers in Boras on Sunday (15/5/16). After all even the suggestion that the 2017 contest be held in Shamali Province rather brings to mind that George Orwell quote;
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Greece: Their song "Utopian Land" was the now traditional complaint about the economic crisis and the European Union (EU) bailout measures. The general tone of it being; "Yeah(!) Join the EU(!) It's Great(!) Everyone's really rich(!) Everybody's happy(!) No-one ever argues(!)"
One of the big, long-running disputes between the EU and Greece has been the Greeks rather lavish higher education system. This is prepared to pay for every single Greek citizen to obtain not only Batchelors and Masters degrees but also PHD's all for free.
The band Argo is made up of a mix of classically trained professional musicians and self-taught folk musicians. This obviously poses the question of whether everyone really needs a PHD?
Featuring the lyric: "Waiting for the plane//for two hours straight//I got some pickles and my friend has got the drinks//Vodka it is, then, and whatever else time brings" Greece was making the point that their economy would recover a lot quicker if they were allowed to resume exports to the large Russian market.
The bandname "Argo" is a reference to the 2012 film "Argo" which explores the link between the CIA and Hollywood when it comes to creating fake propaganda stories.
The folk musicans in the band come from and are expert in the musical traditions of Greece's Pontian region. This sits on the Black Sea coast. It allows the Greeks to go; "We know we sit on the coast of the Black Sea. We know that Bulgaria sits on the shores of the Black Sea. We also know that Russia borders the Black Sea. As does Shamali Province..."
"...Are there any other nations we can think of that border the Black Sea(?)"
17:05 on 23/5/16 (UK date).
Edited at around 18:30 on 23/5/16 (UK date) to add: Greek Lyrics. Above.
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeorwe159448.html
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/georgeorwe159448.html
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