And that was April 2007

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We cover every issue
And that was April…
After kicking off April with an article about the testicles of Asa’s dad it certainly set a bizarre standard
for the remaining 29 days. However, our team of dedicated contributor’s produced some great content,
some of which was worthy of the cover story.
Lei’s debut with her short story ‘The Missed Season’
was impressive and one of the best fiction submissions
in a long time. Clint reminisced about the space race,
Colin argued that there is still life in the old dog, Alexandra was dreaming of serial killers, Judy raised some discussion with her Hollywood stars piece and made you
think with her health care submission. Rene tackled the
Middle East, Richard examined the economics of kids
and Finland’s Vappu, while Sarah and Will presented
their photo galleries.
Will martin
Richard Berman
Judy Eichstedt
Alexandra Pereira
colin
Jan scored an impressive five front covers with articles
on Frank Gehry, guns, prospects, janitorial outlooks and
Kurt Vonnegut, who sadly died in April. Vonnegut was
not the only one to pass away, with Thanos writing about
both Boris Yeltsin and cellist Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich. Thanos also tackled child abuse, the French presidential elections, Finland’s Green Party and served up a
recipe, while Asa was low-key with another I Spy and a
review of the classic All About Eve.
Thanks again to each of our contributors and all of our
readers.
Have a merry May!
The Ovi Team
sarah beetson
Rene Wadlow
clint wayne
lei sovisto
jan sand
My Dad’s balls
By Asa Butcher
What comes to mind when
you think of April 1st? Perhaps you chose April Fools
Day, the start of April, Cyprus
National Day or, this year,
it is also Palm Sunday, but
there is something else. For
my family, April 1st means
three birthdays, my cousin
Kimberley (happy birthday,
by the way), my Dad (happy
birthday to you too) and me.
Well, it isn’t my birthday in
the usual sense; it is the anniversary of the day upon which
I was conceived.
You read right. A few years ago
my mum happily told me that
for my Dad’s birthday in April
1978 he got me. I’m sat here
contemplating that on March
31st 1978 part of me was happily swimming about in my Dad’s
left, or maybe right (can’t be too
sure) testicle blissfully unaware
of my momentous journey the
next day/night (again, I can’t
be too sure and I don’t want to
ask my mum for any further details), yet I don’t know what to
make of it all.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell
you the full story, since many
of you have made the same
journey (obviously not exactly
the same, unless my parents
haven’t told me something), but
you will recall that lengthy front
crawl to the finish line, out in
front all the way, waving farewell to your testicular home,
entering foreign territory, spotting the egg and BAM!, you
had made it. Events after that
are a bit hazy, but, for me, after
8 months and 21 days lodging
in Mum, I popped out in time
for some Christmas pudding.
28 years later, here I am discussing the contents of my
Dad’s boxer shorts on his
birthday, plus sharing these intimate details with strangers perhaps this sort of thing even
gave Freud the willies. As I sit
here mulling over this bizarre
subject and wondering if I am
normal, it occurred to me that
everybody starts their life being
a winner – how’s that for some
home-grown philosophy on a
Sunday?
Ok, the winning doesn’t last
for long, especially for twins
and triplets who have to share
the victory, but just stop and
imagine the race you have just
completed. As a simple spermatozoon, measuring 55 micrometres (one millionth of a
metre) in length, you managed
to beat an average of 20 million (that’s the population of
Australia) sperm in a race to
the ovum. Washed along in a
wave of semen, you may have
reached dizzying speeds of 13 mm/minute, which is a little
faster than some people manage to think.
Who cares whether the winning
sperm had a running start, used
flippers or found a short cut, we
all won and there is no drug test
here, even for those conceived
via IVF treatment. Recalling
our beginnings may make some
of you uncomfortable, but none
of us can escape our origins okay, Jesus Christ is reputably
an immaculate conception, although I have my doubts and
I’m sure Joseph also did at
some point…”an angel, Mary,
really!”
Today in Finland, Palm Sunday is celebrated with children
going door to door dressed as
witches and asking for sweets
(yes, it is also known as Halloween in October), but I shall
refrain from explaining from
whence they came if they
knock upon my door – I doubt
the parents would be too happy,
even though somebody should
tell them soon. The fact that I
know the date of my conception my be making me silly,
but for somebody whose father was born on April 1st, was
conceived on April 1st and was
christened on April 1st, I am allowed to be just a little foolish
sometimes.
Do they have deep booming voices packed
with Barry White bass or squeak like a couple
of helium addicts?
Now you can hear for yourself...
the
Ovi Bad Boys
radio show
Every show online for your aural convenience
E V E R Y
Y E A R
W E
F I G H T
T O
END RACISM
And we will keep on fighting until we do.
The Missed Season
By Lei Sorvisto
Perhaps I am being sentimental or, then again, maybe I
am just plain old-fashioned.
Still, I rarely use email. I have
always felt that emailing is
‘quickly come, quickly go’.
Within a span of a few minutes, and totally unprepared
for, “You have three new
emails.” can appear on your
updated screen. It feels as if
you are being simultaneously
talked to by three people and
don’t know whom to answer
first. Email also leaves in a
hurry. With a light click, the
fresh text is already in front
of you, without you being able
to see the trials of writing and
erasing, erasing and writing.
And you cannot sense my hesitancy to post a letter. So, every
time friends ask me to email
them, you can see silly me take
out pen and paper and ask for
their postal address. This has
been a joke that friends laughed
about for a long time. How par-
adoxical it is that someone who
studies Information Technology does not want to assimilate
with the technology. Normally
I don’t write email, even if it is
just to inquire about a postal address. “Yeah, whatever.” I reply
to the laughter, “IT is merely an
occupation but letter-writing is
a lifestyle. How can you combine these?”
If the truth be known, there is
a story behind my eagerness to
write letters.
After one single incident with a
bunch of letters, I have a selfish
motive with each letter I write.
Perhaps when my letter unfolds
before you, you can smell the
faint fragrance of the ink, and
feel the words – painstakingly
written - bounding on the paper. And, perhaps, between the
lines you can see the train of
my thoughts.
In this fast-paced and complicated world, at least you have
someone who has the patience
to sit down and write you a
physical, tangible letter. After
you have read it, you can’t simply delete it with a click, like
you could erase any long email
from me.
Perhaps you will place my letter
into a draw in which you keep
your glasses. Or then, you may
use my letter as a bookmark
in the thick book you are just
reading. Many years may pass
until you or someone else coincidentally rereads my letter, and
relives the brief moment in our
lives that was recorded in my
letter. Maybe then you will sigh
with emotion: “Luckily this
was not an email, or it would
never have lived to this day.”
This is what I felt when I accidentally came across Katriina
and Dieter’s letters. I was deeply touched and felt so fortunate:
luckily these were not emails,
or else I would never have had
the fortune to fall stumble onto
a secret love, and learn that
there was a season, which had
been missed.
I have wanted to share this
story for a long time, but as
the letters are private, I didn’t
do anything about it till now.
After all, publishing their private lives without their consent
could be against both party’s
wishes. Still, in the end I decided to write the story out, so
that if, by any chance, the people involved in the letters read
the story, the ‘love knot’ which
was tied half a century ago can
be opened. And if they are not
with us anymore, this story is
my way of remembering them.
I bought a bunch of letters for
five Euros from a flea market in
Helsinki. Every weekend, the
market place by the harbour becomes a flea market from where
you can find just about anything.
Old things, once valued, but
now waiting to be sold off in a
hurry. Collections, not wanting
to be collected anymore. Treasures, no longer treasured. Just
about anything from silver cutlery to solid wooden furniture,
from antiques to top tens records
from a different era, from used
clothes to mutilated toys. I frequent the place, not in search of
anything special, just the odd
old book. Any book lover will
have had the same experience,
whilst thumbing and browsing
through the multicoloured piles
of books. Sometimes I don’t
even know what I am searching for. But one thing I know
for sure: there is always a surprise in store. It is like mining
for gold. I have found an original Beatles album, a year 1978
published Guy de Maupassant,
and even a poster for the 1952
Helsinki Olympics. It was at
this treasure trove that I fell
upon the letters from Dieter to
Katriina.
On a Sunday morning in early
autumn, the cool air penetrated every corner of the market
place. I was there again, at the
flea market, browsing through
books. As I passed by a gypsy
woman’s stall, she stopped me.
She wanted to tell me my future.
She was so covered in jewellery that I could hardly see her.
She insisted on telling me my
future, and, very certain of herself, she claimed she knew my
future and could tell me about
it. I refused again and again but
she was very insistent and said:
“It is very accurate.” I waved
my hands in frustration and replied: “I believe that you know
my future, but please do not
tell me. Let me enjoy the ride.”
“Why”, I thought, “if she could
really tell the future, didn’t she
know that I didn’t want to hear
about my future?”
After she realized she was not
going to make any money by
fortune-telling, she placed a
bundle of letters in my hands
and asked whether I collected
stamps. I took a look at the letters; there were about ten of
them. What was very strange
about these letters was that all
the stamps had been carefully
removed from all but one letter,
which was on the top. And what
was even more strange was that
all these letters were from a man
in Berlin to a woman – Katriina
- in Helsinki. I asked the gypsy
woman whether she was Katriina, but she wasn’t.
A wave of curiosity swept over
me, and my heart started to race.
I held the letters in my hand and
maintained my composure and
said to the woman: “What are
you selling? There is only one
stamp left? Did you take away
the other stamps which are missing from the envelopes?” I realized almost immediately that
she had not removed the stamps
as she did not know there was
only one stamp left until I mentioned it. I questioned her again:
“From where did you get these
letters?” She said: “I found the
letters in an abandoned wooden
chest. I don’t know where the
other stamps are. Give me five
Euros and you can have the lot.”
I know what they say about
gypsies, but I had no reason to
doubt her, so I choose to believe
her story. The stamps did not
interest me but the temptation
to read the letters was great, so,
to make it ‘legal’, I paid her five
Euros and bought those letters
from her.
I hurried to a nearby street café.
I couldn’t wait to read the letters. I ordered a cup of coffee
and sat down at a corner table.
As I untied the thread that held
the letters, I noticed that they
were arranged in chronological
order. The topmost letter was
dated 23rd September, 1961,
and the one at the bottom was
sent in December 1959. They
were all from Dieter in Berlin
to Katriina in Helsinki. And so
I accidentally opened that dusty
story by opening the first yellowish letter.
The first letter started like
this…
“Dear Katriina!
Merry Christmas! The trip to
Switzerland was unforgettable - because I met you! Your
beautiful face and your bubbly
laugh are all that I think of. I
miss you so much! I told my
mother about you and she is
very happy for me. She would
like to meet you soon. I mentioned our trip in the summer,
and my family is very excited
to meet you…”
The next few letters were simi-
lar in content. Dieter and his
girlfriend Katriina spoke words
of love from one heart to another. I was slightly disappointed
that the texts didn’t seem to
contain anything truly remarkable, and that they were not really anything very private. The
only thing that stood out was
that they were very sincere: one
could tell from the letters that
these two people must have been
very much in love. I learnt that
Katriina liked to collect stamps.
For that reason Dieter searched
for all kinds of stamps and put
them on the envelopes he sent
to Katriina. He also explained,
in great detail, about the stamp
on the letter he had sent. The
mystery of the missing stamps
was solved: Katriina must have
removed them herself.
I was surprised by the last few
letters from Dieter, which were
written in an entirely different
tone. As usual he wrote a lot
about the stamp he had chosen,
but he wrote also of the unstable situation in Berlin. The letters had less words of love, and
often ended rather hastily with
an ‘I love you!’. Although the
years have gone by, as I opened
the last letter, I could sense Dieter’s worry as he penned the
almost incoherent letter.
It was short and simple:
“Katriina,
How are you?
This will be the last letter I
write to you. For many reasons, I got engaged. Don’t
write to me anymore and don’t
ask me why. Let the past lie
and I hope you can start again.
Berlin is splitting. I will move
somewhere else with my fiancé.
Please take care of yourself.
Sincerely,
Dieter
23rd September, 1961.”
I threw the last letter on the coffee table, thinking that it was
no wonder that Katriina didn’t
want to keep those letters.
What a worthless man and what
cheap love! There is no lack of
this type of man anywhere or
in any era. “Where are all the
good men?”, I wondered. I was
sure that Katriina’s heart must
have shattered when she read
this last letter. She must have
been so sad that she didn’t even
remember to remove the last
stamp for her collection. And
who could blame her after reading that letter? I felt very sad for
Katriina, I knew she must have
had to wait for the pain from
the blow to subside before she
could resume her pet hobby.
My coffee was cold by the time
I had finished reading. I took a
sip and stared at the bunch of
letters. In dismay, and out of
boredom I started to scratch the
stamp, thinking that, perhaps I
could give this stamp to a friend
who collects them. Perhaps it
was because the letter was so
old or maybe the stamp wasn’t
stuck well in the first place.
One light lift with my nails and
the stamp fell off on my coffee
plate.
Lines of small text written at
the back of the stamp suddenly
caught my eye: “Under surveillance, engagement is fake.
Meet me this Christmas Eve in
the same place in Bern!”
I froze, spellbound. The letters
lay scattered on the floor.
Prospects
By Jan Sand
The Ancient Greeks had, as
one of their many noteworthy
talents, the capability to either
fabricate or bring to notice
characters that have persisted
in literature’s memory for millennia. They stick in the mind
because human culture regularly brings about situations that
polish these offerings to bright
significance. Cassandra is one
such icon. The gods had granted her the power to foresee the
future and then slyly sabotaged
this gift by ensuring that no one
would believe her.
Aside from wily gods, Werner Heisenberg brought to light the general observation that the future is
an exceedingly slippery animal.
We have frequently been able to
capture it by weaving tight nets
of reason from lines derived out
of past experience. If a past situation regularly precluded a firm
consequence then it is assumed to
be strong enough to include in our
trap for the future. But Heisenberg
had discovered that the fineness
of the net has a limit and although
gross events carry a workload of
statistical certainty, micro-occurrences such as radioactive decay
swim easily through the holes of
any net.
The net worth of human belief has
two main sources. The most reliable source grows very painfully
from experience that requires the
subjection of any supposition to
the battering of many trials and an
overwhelming number of errors.
Nobody enjoys watching a pretty
personal creation slaughtered by
a hailstorm of hard facts. But seductive ideas, like species, must
be tested through the unmerciful
rough processes of evolution and
non-survivors may not be accepted
through compassion or personal
ego. A bad idea is an evil monster
that will, at end, chew through our
net and destroy the necessary and
useful fabric of reality.
The second source derives from
authority. No living individual has
the time or the wealth of knowledge required to personally test all
accepted ideas before proceeding
to play games with novel proposals. We must each, from our parents, from our schooling, and from
established cultural institutions,
personally decide which ideas to
winnow and which to consume.
But although the bulk of mental comestibles are sufficiently
nourishing to permit our survival,
many contain subtle and not so
subtle poisons that eat into the viability of the foundations of our
necessary structures.
So we must choose our authorities with great care and even the
best of us are subject to huge errors in making these choices. It
is a common and frequently fatal
error to choose, not on the basis
of reason and good sense, but on
wishful thinking. Reality is a hard
taskmaster but, as Bertrand Russell observed, the only virtue that
truth has is that it does not ever go
away. It commonly barks loudly
and then sinks its teeth firmly into
our collective rear ends and if we
do not accept its frequently distasteful dictums it will furiously
tear us to pieces.
An item has appeared in the SlashDot site that is, to say the least, is
unsettling.
MSNBC has up an article discussing the results of a Newsweek poll
on faith and religion among members of the US populace. Given
the straightforward question, ‘Is
evolution well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within
the scientific community?’, some
48% of Americans said ‘No’. Furthermore, 34% of college graduates said they accept the Biblical
story of creation as fact. An alarmingly high number of individuals
responded that they believe the
earth is only 10,000 years old, and
that a deity created our species in
its present form at the start of that
period.
The USA is an indisputably large
and powerful country. That it harbors a large portion of its educated
populace who are obviously operating under a huge delusion strikes
me more with despair than anger.
Delusive people tend to respond
to questionings of the basis of
their belief with destructive force
rather than an acceptance to more
closely examine their mental matrix. The Arab countries also have
formalized legal procedures in
conformation with their religious
beliefs that cannot tolerate rational
doubts. To an equally large extent
the more secular forces of economic domination are rampaging
through a world more concerned
with short term destructive gains
for small powerful privileged social sectors than the general benefit of mankind and for the health
of the planet. The world is more
and more turning vicious by these
and equally irrational social structures.
I can, like Cassandra, proclaim
my foreboding for a frighteningly
dark future but, like this seemingly
eternal character, I can only expect
largely to be ignored.
A dark blue government
& the jolly greens
By Thanos Kalamidas
Finland’s electoral system
leads to coalition governments where the small parties often play a very decisive
role. For the last government
the Christian-Democrats and
the Swedish Party were the
ones who managed to enter
government and support the
Center-Social Democrat government; this time things are
a bit different.
The Social Democrats (SDP)
suffered a really bad defeat and
what made it worst was that a
lot of their voters moved to the
right party Kokoomus, considering that the conservatives in
Finland are represented by the
center-right Keskusta. While
the SDP is still trying to find
out how it happened, the right
party has become a real decisive power in Finnish politics
with its strong 50 members of
parliament. Compare it with
the 51 with which the winners
Keskusta were elected, this is a
total change of balance in Finnish politics.
To make a government the
leading party, Keskusta, needs
around 120 votes out of the 200
members of the parliament. The
center party (Keskusta) and the
right wing party (Kokoomus)
have 101, the Swedish People’s
Party adds nine votes, and, the
big surprise, is that the Green
Party will join with another 15
votes, which results in a con-
servative government with …
green spots.
Here I have to stop because
every time I mentioned this
very likely possibility to my
friends their first reaction is
that I’m …joking and then
they start laughing. But if you
had been watching the Finnish
Green Party over the last four
years you would know that the
only thing missing anymore is
to change the name, since the
only thing they have to do with
the traditional European green
parties is their marketing promoting their connection to the
nature printed on non-recyclable brochures and posters that
were plastered over Helsinki
during the elections.
It’s not a case of creating stereotypes but the gap that separates
the Green Party with any conservative is huge and, in many
levels, that makes it almost
impossible to cooperate under
normal circumstances. There is
no beginning in counting these
differences, from environmental issues to immigration, defense or health, employment
and even education.
A few years ago during an election campaign I was talking with
a candidate of the Green Party
in Helsinki and I happened to
naively ask what the Greens are
doing to forbid the use of land
mines in Finland. The stupid
answer I received was that land
mines are a tradition in Finland
and there is nothing to do about
it - the very same person was a
candidate again in these recent
elections!
Furthermore, the Finnish Green
Party has gone through many
changes over the last four years
targeting a position in government and sacrificing even its
principals, such as the use of
nuclear power or their policy
towards refugees – that last one
in the name of …security! In
addition, another leading figure in the Finnish Greens and
also holding a leading and very
sensitive position in a human
rights’ NGO left the party to become candidate of Kokoomus;
it seems she found that the
black color was stronger than
the green inside of her.
All these things have led to only
one conclusion: the people in
Finland using the ‘Green’ name
and principals are nothing more
than opportunists and the worst
kind. They prey upon people’s
sensitivity to satisfy their pitiful
ambitions, but I sincerely hope
the Finnish people will punish
them in the near future and cast
them back to where they really
belong….namely the trashcan
of Finnish political history.
So, for a foreigner, this will
look like a very dark blue government with green …spots just
like bacteria under the microscope!
Gehry Doubts
By Jan Sand
I went through the formal training for the discipline of industrial design at Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn, New York from 1954
to 1959. It was a fascinating
and revealing experience and,
for me, emotionally and intellectually it was something of a
mental earthquake.
From my first awarenesses as a
child of the many logics which
order the universe, I have been a
non-conformist in confronting the
varieties of fantasy that operate in
motivating much of human activities. Since placid social order depends upon the bland acceptance
of standard rules, I have always
found myself in trouble in many
common social situations.
The Pratt industrial department
had been dominated by a man
named Alexander Kostellow but
unfortunately he had died the
year before I arrived and his crew
was rather disorganized during my stay. Although many of
the instructors were clever people and had been well indoctrinated by this forceful man there
was an ambience of disarray in
the department during my stay.
It manifested itself as a flurry of
sub-disciplines flocking around
the vacuum left by Kostellow’s
absence. Nevertheless the structure of much of the material was
firm enough to sustain the general
structure. I found much of the terminology murky and it was only
long after I graduated that I could
sort out in which direction the disciplines were generally oriented.
But my maverick character kept
acting up. My quest for Kostellow’s ghost became pointed in my
contact with Rowena Reed, Kos-
tellow’s widow who was a force
in herself when she conducted
classes in abstract sculptural design designated in the curriculum
simply as “3D”. All the other
instructors did their jobs reasonably well but the emotional intensity “Miss Reed” conveyed to her
classes displayed a passion for
her subject that left the other instructors far behind and whether
I agreed with her approach or not
I could not help being swayed by
her primal force.
And, unfortunately, my resistance
to conformity bristled at her disciplines. These disciplines, basically, analyzed any sculptural design in terms of three interactive
visual qualities: a dominant aspect, a sub-dominant aspect and
a subordinate aspect. All submitted design efforts were critiqued
in this framework and I had difficulty then, and still do, in fitting
all good designs into this formal
strait jacket.
Before I had entered Pratt I had
become acquainted with the outlook of the old Bauhaus design
school in pre-Hitler Germany and
its slogan of “Form follows function” made logical good sense to
me. The overwhelming bulk of
nature’s organic creations were
the result of optimizing their function within their operating area
with no concession to aesthetics
and nevertheless they were all
impressively beautiful. So I was
extremely suspicious of design
that disregarded function. Abstract sculpture has no function
beyond aesthetic stimulation but I
was orienting myself towards designing useful objects so purely
aesthetic standards seemed to me
to be out of kilter with something
useful and might probably warp a
good utilitarian design away from
its proper purposes.
At one point in my time at Pratt
Buckminster Fuller gave a lecture
and when he was asked what he
thought of industrial design he
replied that he thought an industrial designer would die happy if
he had made the world a bit shinier. At the time I felt insulted by
his remark but since then I have
come to appreciate the insight of
his comment.
And this brings me, at long last,
to the work of Frank Gehry.
There is no doubt that his work
is sensational. And the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao certainly
has an emotional impact. All that
shiny metal donates all the delight
of a 1950’s chrome plated product
of Detroit somehow combined on
a colossal scale with a warehouse
supply of sheet metal disarrayed
by a tornado.
And, incredibly, it is visually
pleasing. But what the hell goes
on inside? Can any of the internal
art compete with this huge hollow sculpture? How does it function as a museum?
I have seen other Gehry structures, buildings given an arbitrary
twist or leaning hither and yon
trying to recover from an adventure past the looking glass. If they
were human I would feel they
were physically challenged.
But do they function properly or
even better because of their weird
alien appearance.
I hope so, but I have doubts.
Imagine
a future in
which cows are
extinct.
Imagine your
children can
only see them in
books.
Imagine you
could have
done something
to save them.
Don’t wait
until it is too
late.
Act now
and protect our
planet.
Resurrection or rebirth?
By The Ovi Team
Easter is a Christian celebration that symbolizes the resurrection, the rebirth and, as
that, we should see it doesn’t
matter if we believe or not.
After all, the early spring in
most of the countries is here to
remind us of the rebirth of Nature and in many dimensions.
This has been an early spring
after a really weird winter when
the days we were expecting
snow came light rain and sunshine, while other days we expected sun but got heavy clouds
and fog. We even had a second
and a third tsunami only this
time they didn’t make headlines
all the world media, we found it
natural that the tsunamis multiply and come and go.
So what this earth needs is a
resurrection since we are gradually killing it and that ‘we’ is
intentional, since all of us are
responsible for both her death
and her rebirth! In the name of
profit, hyper-consumption, hyper-production and prodigality
of energy we lead our earth to
a near destruction with global
warming, troubled Ozone layers and evanescence of every
kind of living force, both fauna
and flora.
To be environmentally aware
doesn’t stop in the forest and
bushes, but it extends to all life
on this planet. It extends to the
30,000 kids that die daily from
illnesses or, ironically, a lack of
water, it extends to wars that kill
hundreds of thousands of innocents and it extends to the irresponsible use of nuclear power
that will cost millions of lives.
It has to do with the millions of
kids that suffer from asthma,
diabetes and heart problems in
our civilized west and the mil-
lions who die of HIV AIDS in
Africa.
Humanity is definitely reaching is limits and a rebirth is a
demand, although in the Earth’s
case there is not the luxury of
the mythic phoenix, reborn
from its own ashes – the Earth
must resurrect now.
Easter has a special message for
the millions of Christians but it
has its global message as well:
let’s help earth be reborn, let’s
become more aware of our contribution of this rebirth, let’s be
part of this rebirth and we can
do that by starting from ourselves, becoming more aware
of our role as part of the problem and part of the solution.
We can start our efforts in our
micro-cosmos and expand by
simply starting to care!
So, the best wish could only be
… good resurrection or rebirth!
Media PDF: Editorial
By The Ovi Team
“Good things come to those
who wait!”
At last, we hear you cry in unison! We know it has been an
embarrassingly long gap since
we produced our birthday issue, but 2007 has had its foot on
the accelerator for three whole
months and we think that the
brake pedal doesn’t even work.
Anyway...
Welcome to Ovi magazine’s
latest theme issue!
The theme, if you hadn’t
guessed already, is ‘Media’
and the Ovi team have discovered just whole far that subject
goes. It covers everything from
movies to press, magazines to
television, internet to the paperboy earning a few pounds each
morning.
It has been a long time since any
of the Ovi team got up early to
deliver newspapers, but we are
all still involved in this media
business one way or another
– some of us still get up early,
although that does not include
the editorial team.
We hope you enjoy our effort
and feel generous enough to
leave a tip…
The Ovi Team
ABC...AP...BBC...BMG...CBS...
CNN...ESPN...FHM...GQ...
HBO...MGM...MTV...NBC...
NPR...OVI...RCA...VH1...
Conspiracy of silence
By Thanos Kalamidas
Following the release of a report on child abuse in India,
the Minister for Women and
Child Development, Renuka
Chowdhury said: “In India
there’s a tradition of denying
child abuse, it doesn’t happen
here is what we normally say.
But by remaining silent, we
have aided and abetted the
abuse of children.”
Reading that, there was only
one thing in my mind: not only
in India, but in the entire world
exactly the same thing happens.
We keep abuse as a secret; we
are scared to say it out loud with
the worst results for the kid and
for future victims of the abuser.
To have a ministry that is working for the benefit and development of women and kids I find
it extraordinary good, despite
all the calls of equality especially in the west.
The bare truth is that equality
has a long way to go before
reaching the reality of every
day life. I have to admit that I
found it admirable for the Indian government to admit that
there is a problem so big to create a ministry just for this work.
At the same time, I found it very
brave that the minister not only
did the survey but she had the
bravery to stand up and admit
that two out of three children in
India have been abused.
Not many politicians would
have the same strength, especially in countries were tradition, however brutal, guides
the lives of people, especially
in an overpopulated country
with numbers like India. Mrs.
Chowdhury called for an end to
the ‘conspiracy of silence’ and I
wish people from all around the
world could hear her and make
it practice because then we
would never have the numbers
of dead or seriously wounded
kids.
I cannot resist moving from India to Europe because however
sure we feel about information
and preventing abuse it happens
and unfortunately it happens
daily. Newspapers, television
and magazines are the worst
witnesses having often daily
a story of a kid that has been
abused or a story of an arrest
who admitted to have abused
kids that never dared to say the
truth. What makes me wonder
is when this – I don’t even think
to call human – was burning a
two-year-old with a cigarette in
an apartment and nobody heard
anything. If they did, why didn’t
they do anything?
Have we become so isolated
from our surroundings and so
much focus on the latest Idol’s
series to ignore other sounds?
What does it take for people to
understand and break this, as
the Indian minister put it, ‘conspiracy of silence’?
The study that was organized by
the Indian ministry for Women
and Child Development took
two years to complete and covered 13 states where 12,250
children between five and
twelve and 2,325 young adults
over twelve were questioned.
Noticeable it is what Dr. Loveleen Kacker, the official in
charge of child welfare in the
ministry, said, that the study revealed that contrary to the general belief that only girls were
sexually abused, boys were
equally at risk if not more.
She turned the revelation into
horror when she added, “A substantial number of the abusers
were persons in trust and care
givers who included parents,
relatives and school teachers.”
I don’t feel like having anything
else to add other than please
wake up: 30,000 kids die everyday somewhere in this world
and who knows how many are
the thousands that suffer every
minute, every second on this
planet.
Ovi Bookshop
THE DEAD PINKY by Theo Versten
The Trunk by Bohdan Yuri
Bohdan Yuri has captured the emotion of a young girl’s
decision to leave home and explore the waiting world, but
a letter written by her recently deceased grandfather may
change all that. Download this touching short story today.
“The thing was that it just freaked me out that she didn’t
have a pinky finger on her right hand anymore…” Theo
Versten’s intriguing opening line develops this physical
mutilation into a college relationship with a difference. Be
warned, it may not be suitable for the faint of heart…
A Mika Moose Christmas by Thanos K & Asa B
Hemingway’s curse by Alexandra Pereira
The Compleat Angler Hotel on the island of Bimini, in the
Bahamas, was destroyed by fire a few years ago. It was
one of the refuges of Ernest Hemingway and it is believed
he wrote a few novels there. Now, it has inspired a different kind of story. The author felt the news failed to reflect
the extent of the fiery destruction and begins her journey to
change all that.
The Christmas adventure that has been on everybody’s lips.
The simple story of a moose and a magpie saving Christmas
- what more could you want?
Beautiful People #1 by Thanos Kalamidas
RIP 2006 cartoons’ book by Thanos Kalamidas
Six-feet-under, two corpses voice their strong, yet humorous, opinions on contemporary events, plus they are occasionally joined by everybody’s favourite bloodsucker.
Download the complete 2006 ‘R.I.P., including the Dracula’
today.
The Extraordinary Beautiful People is Thanos Kalamidas’
graphic novel debut and it is unlike anything you have ever
seen before. Dark, surreal, stylish and thought provoking
are just four adjectives that come to mind, but feel free to
choose some of your own.
Beautiful People #2 by Thanos Kalamidas
ShowBizz, Directing. Book #1 by Thanos K & Asa B
How many cocks have you ever seen? Perhaps I should rephrase
that: how many roosters have you ever met? I have met one
rooster in my life and it was a nasty day on the farm… if you
want to see what happened just … read the first book with the
adventures of Showbizz
Ovi proudly presents ‘The Extraordinary Beautiful People’
festive edition, which turns Christmas on its head, leaving
you staring into empty darkness and wondering how it can
still be so surreal, yet so cool.
Watch this Space
By Clint Wayne
In this age of computers,
iPods and all matter of digital wizardry any mention of
space travel or a rocket launch
from Cape Canaveral would
be lucky to make the third
or fourth slot on the evening
news, let alone make a youngster momentarily glance up
from the latest battle taking
place on their Playstation.
into space until Alan Shepard’s
sub-orbital flight 23 days later
so Yuri Gagarin did indeed become the first man to see that
the Earth was indeed round,
was indeed mostly water and
was indeed absolutely magnificent.
But back on April 12th 1961, as
a boy, I listened intently to the
headline news that Russian Yuri
Gagarin had become the first
human to be sent into space,
orbiting just once ‘around the
block’ in Vostok 1 for roughly
108 minutes. His capsule’s
flight and re-entry being controlled by computer from the
ground although his final descent to world renowned fame
was by parachute into Siberia.
April 12th has certainly become
synonymous with Space Travel
as 20 years later the Space Shuttle Columbia made its maiden
voyage as the Americans announced to the Russians ‘ours
is better than yours because its
recyclable’. Columbia was the
indeed the revolutionary answer to those ‘non believers’
carrying out 27 successful missions until that horrendous day
in 2003 when the shuttle disintegrated during re-entry over
Texas killing all seven crew
members.
Before Gagarin climbed aboard
the rocket he declared, “What a
beautiful moment this was, how
all he had lived for was this moment and that he was glad to
meet nature face to face in this
unprecedented encounter.” All
this and he hadn’t even told his
Mum!
Following the successful early
missions, the fleet was expanded to include Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour
carrying out endless scientific
experiments of micro biology and the launching of many
Space labs and Satellites that
now hurtle around our planet.
The Russians had beaten the
Americans into second place
in the ‘Space Race’ as the
United States didn’t put a man
On a family holiday to Florida
we visited the Kennedy Space
Centre and it was there that
I just realised the enormity
of it all. From the early Mercury Rockets through to the
Space Shuttles it was a window through my years growing
up in the ‘Space Age’. When
it took us 15 to 20 minutes to
stroll around the outside of the
Apollo Rocket and compare the
miniscule size of the capsule
to the amount of fuel the astronauts are precariously perched
upon it made you realise their
bravery and the adrenaline rush
they must get on lift-off.
I consider myself lucky to have
grown up in the 1960s and to
have experienced the era of the
‘Space Race’ which was an exciting period in which to live,
even as a child you could not
help to be aware of the fierce
competition between the Americans and the Russians.
Accompanying those days were
the toy rockets, tales of Dan
Dare and, of course, the legendary Fireball XL-5 piloted by
the heroic Steve Zodiac. Then
as a teenager being awestruck
of the views of ‘Planet Earth’
being beamed down from
Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve
1968 and finally to July 1969
when the Eagle had landed and
a chap called Armstrong took
‘One Small Step’ for somebody
called ‘Mankind’.
Vonnegut (1922-2007)
By Jan Sand
I have lived for quite a while
and one of the persistent
sadnesses of a long life is to
watch the prominent people
that comprise the topography
of our civilization disappear
into myth and memory, victims of inexorable time, like
the islands that are now being
engulfed by a rising sea.
Today I have learned of the
death of Kurt Vonnegut and, to
me, it is the equivalent of losing
Australia or South America.
Only rarely does human culture
manufacture a human being
with the flavor of a wonderful
quality like a rich sour-sweet
orange and an essence and an
intellectual redolence few others could approach, much more
to match.
He appreciated the wonder of
humanity that, like no other
animal that ever existed, carries
with it the promise of the entire
planet to grasp and even manipulate the small sector of the
universe within the very local
neighborhood of our solar system and even slightly beyond.
And his vision was sharp enough
to perceive the disastrous limitations that have hobbled our
species for centuries and are
now nudging us to self-destruction. But he had the ingenuity to
ferment these perceptions past
mere sourness into the delight
of humor. He lived through one
of the many horrors we have
created, the inferno of Dresden
in the Second World War, and
sculpted it into a novel that held
this terrifying accomplishment
up for all to see and know it for
what it was.
His early novel The Sirens of
Titan was a joyful irony of the
promises of science fiction full
of the funniest material that has
only later been matched by The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Humor, above all, is the
sharpest surgical instrument for
excising the social cancers that
now plague our culture.
He joins Aristophanes, Voltaire, Cervantes, Chaplin, Mark
Twain, Walt Kelly, and Douglas Adams, amongst the sparse
group that had 20-20 vision as
to the limitations and potentials
of our race and he will be sorely
missed in an era that very badly
needs him.
The Teachings of Hollywood
By Judy Eichstedt
Today millions of people think
nothing about dropping ten
dollars to see a movie and be
entertained. The days of reading a good book or staying
home with the kids are dead
and gone. They hear some
hype about a movie and, like
a herd of cattle, rush off to
check out the movie. No one
questions Hollywood about
the movies they put out or
about their teachings that are
clearly present in each and
every movie they produce.
The movie industry earns billions of dollars that is your
hard-earned money, by the way,
and has grown to super power
status. Movie stars are worshipped and praised for being
actors and for no other reason.
Actors have done nothing special to earn our worship of them
but have pretended to be someone special grabbing the glory
that they do not deserve. Star
struck people see an actor in a
role and begin to idolize them
because of the part the actor
is playing. They do not realize
or perhaps forget that the actor
has done nothing but pretend
to be another person who has
achieved something great. Hollywood teaches that the glitter
and glamour is far more important then the deed.
A closer look at Hollywood
unveils a side of darkness that
should have been exposed for
all to see. In just about every
movie the star must be young
and bone thin. Sex appeal must
ooze from them at all times.
Their bodies must be frail with
faces that have been made perfect by plastic surgery. Even
their teeth are pure white and as
straight and perfect as can be.
Average people see the perfect
movie star and dream about
being them. Young girls starve
themselves in order to gain the
movie star body. Many start to
feel as if they are ugly because
they don’t measure up to the
movie stars.
Women skip meals in order
to say I am a size two or less.
Anyone over a size two is considered fat. Many women are
anorexic today because Hollywood has taught through their
movies that to be accepted you
most be skinny and that being
frail and even sickly looking
is now beautiful and to be desired. Overweight people and,
yes, even average bodies are to
be looked down upon and never
accepted.
According to the Renfrew
Center Foundation it is estimated that five million people in
America suffer from an eating
disorder. ABC News in June
2005 stated that adult anorexia
is on the rise. Experts believe
more then ten percent of anorexics are over forty as women
deal with film and television
actress who remain rail thin as
they age. This teaching is dangerous and causing many health
problems for a lot of people.
The lifestyle of the movie stars
leave us drooling and, yes, wondering why them and not me.
Many struggle to put food on
the table and pay their rent and
yet the movie stars have money
to burn. We are being shown
the mansions costing millions
of dollars as well as expensive
cars that, let’s face it, none of us
will ever partake in. The normal
human being comes away feeling as if they some how have
been cheated or passed over as
they struggle to keep the mod-
est home and car that they work
hard to maintain.
The movie star, with their designer dresses and bling, as it
is called, drips off the movie
stars, while others look and are
reminded they will never taste
a bit of it. The movie stars journey to one place and then another, places we have all dreamed
about seeing but many could
never afford to travel, so it remains just a dream to us. Hollywood teaches that what you
own and your bank account determines your worth and value.
Hollywood has clearly sent the
message that youth is great but
older really stinks. Sure, they
have a few older actors here
and there but it’s mostly filled
with the youth of Hollywood.
In Peter Bowes’ ‘Growing old
in Hollywood’ BBC news article he says, Hollywood has a
huge downer on women over
forty. Hollywood is littered with
tales of ageing starlets who see
their careers take a nosedive after forty.
The older actors who at one time
were the younger actors compete with the younger ones but
mostly just fade a way and out
of the memory of Hollywood.
In our world as we get older we
are being pushed aside to make
room for the fresh young bodies
who are suppose to be able to
contribute more and better then
the older people. In many ways
Hollywood shows us that only
youth has anything real to offer
and to cast off the older person
as if they could never measure
up.
Hollywood is a fake place where
fake people live. It’s not real in
any way. Strip away the money
and power and the praise and
worship and you view people
just plain people. Hollywood
with all its glamour holds very
little and offers even less. Their
movies take most of us places
we should never go. They cram
movies full of what they insist
we all want to see. On that point
they might we right.
Why else are we paying so
much to see their movies? The
truth might well be that actors
look for escape in pretending
to be someone else and we all
watch there movies in order to
escape our daily lives that are
full of struggles. A couple of
hours in TV land or out to see a
movie gives us relief from our
own lives. Hollywood perhaps
without knowing it has taken us
all on a journey into the unreal
making it impossible to except
reality without a script to follow.
The Janitorial Outlook
By Jan Sand
The concept of democracy, in
one form or another, has been
around for a very long time
and in its early manifestation
in Ancient Greece it has been
denigrated for being based on
slavery.
When democracy was set up in
the United States it declared itself
a government of free men and
documented that all men are born
free and equal and should therefore be treated thus under the law.
But, as today in this and other
social matters, there was a heavy
vein of hypocrisy inlaid within
the legalities of the country.
For, as in Ancient Greece, slavery
was thoroughly integrated into the
economy, not only in the American south but in many northern
cities, such as New York, as well.
After a frightfully bloody civil
war some of the officially accepted inequalities were formally
eliminated but it took over one
hundred years after that to sweep
away some of the worst injustices
of racism. But even a brief glance
at the current situation will reveal there is still a great deal to
be changed fifty years on from
there before even a reasonable
semblance of equal treatment can
be realized.
The delusion of human equality
was but one of the many inspirational foundations upon which the
American republic was founded.
Government anywhere is based
on the actualities of finance and
economics heavily spiced with
tradition and the realities of
groups in power at the time of establishment.
In those early days of the late
seventeen hundreds when power
throughout the world mostly rest-
ed in the hands of royalty and the
aristocracy, democracy seemed an
innovation not necessarily a good
thing, in spite of its forebears in
other countries and other times.
Just as the capitalist powers felt
threatened by the rise of communism in Russia, so the prevailing
powers looked with some distress at the establishment of the
American republic. Subsequently
the bloody French revolution did
nothing to allay their fears.
And prior to the formalized acceptance of the system within the
USA there was some discussion
of setting up an American kingdom with George Washington
as sovereign (which he quickly
rejected). The quality of the relationship of the US president to
the country has been somewhat
hazy ever since as pointedly exemplified by the current President, G.W. Bush, who has been
intent throughout his terms in
bloating his powers to the point
of taking over some vital powers
previously specifically allocated
to Congress.
It is not unreasonable to wonder if
the basic conception of the presidency might be at fault as the basis for problems of presidential
power. Perhaps, as a system comparison, the royal prerogative of a
president is way off the mark in a
democracy and it might be interesting to look for other social arrangements as the basis for government.
A good many of us in many countries live in apartment houses.
Some own their apartments and
some rent, but there is usually
one man hired to see to it that
the place remains in good condition and when breakdowns occur
or when a tenant misbehaves the
“super” (for superintendent) or
janitor or talonmies (in Finland)
intervenes. A good one must
combine the various talents of a
plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a painter, a metalworker and
especially, a diplomat.
The super, bereft of red cape and
blue skin-tight suit, will unplug
a drain, rewire a lamp, change a
fuse, patch and paint a wall, and
intervene politely if there is too
much noise or the danger of a fire.
At Christmas or other holidays he
will appreciate a couple of bucks
and a greeting card and even, at
times, calm down domestic troubles.
But he knows enough not to bust
down the front door or sneak into
the apartment for an invasion of
privacy when you’re not there.
He will not listen in to private
telephone conversations or steam
open letters to get at private matters.
He is an employee of the system,
not its ruler, although he will see
to it that everybody conforms to
mutually accepted rules. He is
definitely not a dictator or a tin
god. And if he misbehaves he is
promptly kicked out.
On a national level when a country mistreats its natural resources,
permits national disasters to go
untended, allows the infrastructure that keeps a nation strong
such as the roads and transportation systems, the educational
system, the financial system, the
health system, the defense system
fall into disrepair, it is obvious
that the guy in charge is not doing
his job. He is a lousy janitor.
And he should be promptly kicked
out.
I’ve Been Dreaming
About Serial Killers
By Alexandra Pereira
From Hannibal in The Silence
of the Lambs to Jack the Ripper wandering about in London’s thick fog (so thick, one
can cut it with a knife), to
a rapist who is also a serial
killer and whose same hands
have (freak thought…) both
undressed and strangled
people – this whole circus of
monstrosities has been unpleasantly and shockingly defiling through my asleep mind,
steam-dancing in my last few
nights’ Easter dreams (well,
nightmares…), which should
be overloaded with chocolate
bunnies, gigantic candy eggs
and innocent happy-family
belonging feelings instead.
Who knows the caprices of the
human mind, and by which tortuous means and mistakes we
make sense out of the awaken
fragments of life which remain
in a hidden part of our brains
just waiting for the night to fall,
so they can torment one…
Now seriously, I’ve just discovered recently that dreaming is
a really stupid activity, and the
proof for that is: there’s no point
about dreaming about serial killers – unless you are trying to collaborate with Europol or you are
part of the C.S.I. series cast; if
you are somehow trying to solve
a case and arrest a murderer it
can be useful, if you try to protect yourself from an assassin,
then it is clever to dream with
one (or several). Only then. Otherwise, it will only make anxiety pop-up uselessly in your daily
routines and you will wake up
sweating and trembling (which
is not comfortable), plus you’ll
be drowned in a truly messed
bad humor for the rest of your
holy day.
“What do these people have to
do with me, why are they still out
there killing and not in prison?”.
Funnily, one can be incredibly
lucid (and even preserve a summarized notion of the ridiculous
or a minimum critical sense)
while “watching” his/her own
dreams happen. Thank God. Or
the Devil. Or both. Who knows.
I profoundly believe that God
can be a great son-of-a-bitch
sometimes. My happy mämmi
Easter, where are you? There’s
no way I can feel guilty for this,
I haven’t been reading H. P.
Lovecraft for ages, nor watching horror movies nor buying
butcher meat lately nor anything
(…especially “nor anything”).
Still, in the place of a dancing
sun I get a horrible dark night,
full of moonlights’ dizzying
drizzle and complex urban trails
to follow while chasing The
Guilty One.
Besides, there is the repugnant
and terrifying nature of these
creatures I search for, which are
not humans anymore nor animals yet (they lack some “animal innocence” for that…), but
monsters, brutal bloody beasts
or sticky nasty monsters I don’t
want to get along with. They are
in my mind still. Oh, that’s awful!
Could it be the Easter morbidity playing with my spirit – one
dead Messias always supposes
several killers to keep track of
his alive actions and build him
a deadly trap. But then, just one
dead (even if an important one
like... ahhh... let’s say Jesus
Christ) doesn’t make the “serial” adjective valid nor serious,
does it? Why then to convoke
so many murderers to a single
night, in one or distinct dreams
apparitions, and just because
it’s now that time of the year
when Jesus should be dead and
buried, and then (who can understand them) alive again? I’m
not even a Catholic and I don’t
dream with knives, wounds and
cuttings when that time of the
month comes either... Makes no
sense to me. I understand witches fly at Easter, but serial killers?
Wow, that’s way too dreamy!
Kids
By Richard Berman
Bringing a child into this
world, we all know costs a lot
of money. It starts from the
day that you find out you’re
having a baby and you have
to pay 22€ for each of the first
two ultrasounds and even
after you get your newborn
home you get a nice bill from
the hospital for the two-night
stay.
I have heard that the more
children you have reveals how
much money you have, true? I
stopped at just two, why? That
is how far my wife’s and my
paycheck will cover, if we had
more children we would not be
able to bring up the kids how
we would like, since I want
them to have days out, holidays
and nice things, but not to spoil
them. But then you get the families that struggle though life to
bring up their children.
The great thing about having children in Finland is the
amount of time women get for
their maternity leave. First they
get the nine months of 70% of
their wage paid to them by the
government and I also know
some firms pay the full wage
for the first three months that
the mother is at home and the
government pay the last six
months, then after the nine
months the money goes down
to around 50% until the child
is two and after that, until the
child is three years of age, the
government pay around 500 euros a month. The child also gets
its child support money, so it is
not bad.
When the mother goes back to
work they can then work only
six hours a day until the child
goes to school. When the mother is at work the children are
sent to childcare (kindergarten)
which costs about 180 euros a
month. I have spoken to a couple of friends back in England
to find out the costs of childcare
there.
My friend in Guernsey pays
£16,000 a year for his child
minder; this lady takes care
of three kids full time, that’s
£48,000 a year, lucky her I
would say. My sister who lives
in the south of England pays
£17.50 a day for her child’s daycare and a friend of hers pays
£22 a day, So we should think
ourselves lucky here in Finland
at the low cost of childcare.
I have nothing to complain
about, since my two girls mean
the world to me and I would do
anything for them, but they cost
me a lot of money. Already the
five-year-old has gone though
three pairs of shoes this year - I
could not tell you what she does
to them. She already knows
what she wants in the way of
fashion, telling as what she
wants to wear, and telling us
what matches, and I just thank
god my wife is stronger then
me and does not give into her
in the shops. Today while out
food shopping she was telling
us what cheese she wanted, and
I swear they both eat more then
my wife and I.
Every year we have to buy the
new winter suits, winter shoes,
hats, gloves, waterproof suits
and so on. I am always happy
when their granny offers to pay
for it because the total cost can
easily be over 200 euros.
From birth to the day that they
move out it is going to be expensive, but does it stop the day
they move out? I am still really
happy when my mum and dad
give me money at the age of
30...
This bit is from the BBC: Parents spend an average of £2,916
on a daughter every year and
£2,790 on a son, according to a
poll of 500 parents for the online bank Egg. That amounts
to nearly £50,000 per child up
to the age of 17, so I hope this
does not put anyone off having
kids, they bring a lot to a family, but also take a lot.
Ovi Cookbook: Baklava
By Thanos Kalamidas
Are you hungry? Well you will be soon.
Today is the next recipe in our intermittent Ovi
Cookbook and the dish today is baklava, a sweet,
classic and very famous Greek pastry.
It is made of chopped nuts, usually walnuts or
pistachios, layered with filo pastry, sweetened
with sugar or honey syrup.
Now, are you hungry?
Baklava
1 cup (8 oz) melted unsalted butter
500 gr. Chopped walnuts
250 gr. Chopped almonds –fry them a bit with
butter.
1/4 cup (8 oz) sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
500 gr. Greek filo
Syrup
2 cups (16 oz) honey
2 cups (16 oz) water
The juice of one lemon
2 whole cloves (mausteneilikka)
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
2. With a little of the melted butter, brush the
inside of the baking tin you will use (must be
oblong shape).
3. In a bowl mix together well the nuts, sugar,
cinnamon and cloves.
4. Over the bottom of the tin place 6 sheets of
filo, each sheet well buttered before
the next
one. Sprinkle the top sheet with some of the nutsugar mix you did before.
5. Place 4 buttered sheets on top and then again
sprinkle some more of the nut-sugar mix.
6. Put as many layers of sheets you want the
same way (4 buttered sheets and then the mix),
just keep about 6 for the top.
7. You have to ‘cut’ it in small squares. It will
be easier to do it before putting it in the oven
because after ‘filo’ is going very dry.
8. Place it in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Move it to the top of the oven after the 30
min till it gets brown on the top, which should
take another 10-15 min.
10. While Baklava is in the oven prepare the
syrup. Combine all the ingredients, heat and stir
to dissolve the sugar.
11. Boil it for approximately 10 minutes.
12. Strain, cool and pour half of the syrup over
the hot baklava.
13. Let it stand for about 30 minutes and then
pour the rest of the syrup.
It is better to leave it overnight so Baklava can
‘drink’ all the syrup.
In the nuts-sugar mixture I always add some
liqueur, grenadine or cognac. It gives a nice
perfume.
If you have a recipe you would like to share
with the Ovi and its readers, please email info@
ovimagazine.com
Guns
By Jan Sand
The tragedy at Virginia Tech is
one in a long series in which
people with mental problems
have committed terrible acts.
There is bound to be a serious
discussion about what might
be done to prevent this kind of
thing and there are fiercely held
opinions on the several sides of
the discussion.
The immediate defensive reaction of the gun proponents has
been that this is a momentous
tragedy and should not be politicized to buttress personal
viewpoints. But the argument
seems to me to be totally with-
out value. If a situation so monstrous cannot prompt political
reaction what kind of situation
would be worthy of getting political machinery into motion?
might be. When victims can
be casually dispatched with a
finger twitch the likelihood of
lethality becomes marvellously
enhanced.
The pro-gun people declare
that guns are not the basic movers of violence. It is the people
who handle the guns who must
be held responsible. The point
of view ignores something very
basic about guns. If people had
to become lethal using sharpened toothpicks I doubt very
much that mass toothpick killings would take place, whatever the dexterity of psychopaths
Just recently a federal law in
the USA preventing civilians
from owning automatic weapons was permitted to lapse at
the behest of the powerful National Rifle Association. The
people who are seduced by the
personal power conferred by
firearms have suggested that the
possession by civilians of these
lethal instruments acts as a preventative against a totalitarian
state. Considering the type of
military equipment available to
a government, from tanks to air
strike capability, the argument
simply has no rational basis
whatsoever.
There is a second argument in
favor of the general public owning guns. This one is a bit more
difficult to counter. The gun
people propose that a student
body lethally armed could have
protected themselves from the
odd psychopath who initiates a
massacre. Theoretically, armed
students could be trained and
disciplined in gun use to act as
a civilian deterrent against major tragedy.
But the record of people who
have been gun empowered is
not terribly encouraging. Several tragic instances in New
York City and elsewhere have
shown that the gun as a reprisal
for threat, even by trained and
experienced policemen, has resulted in the impulsive death
of innocents. The judgment of
life and death is a legal decision that goes through all sorts
of safeguards that may take
years and a very large financial
outlay before the proper remedy is determined. To put this
decision in the hands of one
man may occur out of enforcement necessity at times but it
always courts disaster. To place
this terrible power in the hands,
say, of university students who
are frequently immature and
have notorious reputations for
brawling and drunken behavior
would turn the country into a
Hollywood version of the Wild
West. The “Animal House” so
armed could only be the basis
for a horror film.
Perhaps this aspect could be
viewed on a scaled up version
many magnitudes larger. The
gradual dissemination to new
nations of knowledge to construct atomic armaments has
been viewed with great fear as
each new atomic nation presents
the possibility that the weapons
will be used irresponsibly and
huge tragedy will result. The
USA is the only nation that has
ever used atomic bombs in warfare and the immense horror revealed by that use has been a
deterrent for further use in any
form but a threat. But a threat is
only made viable if the threatener is accepted as potential actual use. There may come a time
when mere atomic posturing is
no longer accepted as believable and a new demonstration
of actual use becomes necessary. The ensuing use of atomic
weaponry may mean the end of
both civilization and any possibility of life on the planet.
atomic knife-edge?
Getting back down to the level
of the individual, must we trust
every individual to go weaponed with good control of his/
her fatal powers? This is what
the NRA seems to be suggesting. The reality does not bestow
much peace of mind on me.
I am not that confident of the
judgment and mental balance of
every potential weapon owner.
But the actual acquisition of
atomic weapons has, in the case
of India and Pakistan and in the
case of North Korea, seemed to
stifle boisterous confrontation.
The USA under G.W. Bush
made all sorts of ferocious
threats but when North Korea
actually detonated a test bomb
the USA found its way to make
peaceful negotiations possible.
So, at first glance, atomic
weaponry would seem to discourage open military confrontation. It seems a reasonable
possibility that Iran is aware of
this and sufficiently alarmed by
the USA and Israel, both atomic
powers, to have a strong desire
to become atomically invulnerable.
But does the world’s peace
necessarily have to rest on an
Nuclear fusion TEARS the world apart
SAY YES TO PEACE
There’s still life
in the ‘Old Dog’ yet
By Colin
There are many hackneyed
sayings that could apply to me
at the moment: There’s still
life in the ‘Old Dog’ yet, you
can’t teach an ‘Old Dog’ new
tricks, the grass is greener,
there’s a big wide world out
there and life begins at 40
(OK I’m over 50), to name but
a few. The fact is, I am going
to be the new boy in the office
for the second time in 41 years
and all those sayings are very
apt. Why, you may ask? Well,
that dreaded word that is all
too common in British Industry these days, redundancy,
has finally caught up with me.
You might also question as to
why I will be the new boy for
only the second time in 41 years
of continued employment! The
reason is that I have worked
at my present company for 40
years and 10 months. In today’s
society, that would probably go
against you when seeking new
employment and many people
look at me strangely when I
tell them. I wonder how many
people who read this will have
worked nearly their entire working life for just one employer.
I can recall an occasion when I
purchased a new TV under hire
purchase and when asked three
questions…how long have I
worked at my present job, how
long have I lived where I lived,
and how long have I banked
where I bank……..the answer
to all the questions was then,
over 30 years. The sales assistant looked up and said “consistent then?” when she probably
meant, “Boring (eh Clint?).”
I signed up for a draughtsman’s
apprenticeship with ‘Lec Refrigeration’, in my home town,
way back in the year that the late
Bobby Moore hoisted the ‘Jules
Rimet’ trophy aloft……..1966.
British industry was then heading towards a very profitable
period. Lec boasted some 2,000
employees that year. I can remember my first day as though
it were yesterday. There I was,
a young, spotty youth decked
out in a brilliant white lab coat,
that actually had ironed creases
in it. That was the first and last
time I allowed my mother near
it.
In days gone by, apprentices
who joined manufacturing/
engineering companies had to
undergo initiation ceremonies
and rites that would make today’s school leavers run home
to mummy or better still, call
the police. I’m certainly not
condoning what happened then
and in fact, some of the things
that happened would today result in at least a suspension, if
not instant dismissal. The tricks
attempted on me back then,
would scar today’s apprentices
for life. Certain rites of initiation involved parts of the male
anatomy that are best left in
one’s trousers and tubes of ‘Engineers Blue’.
As the decades passed, British industry started to struggle, especially the one in which
my career had progressed. My
company originally manufactured both domestic and com-
mercial refrigerators and freezers. Lec made simple domestic
models found in yours or my
kitchen, to highly sophisticated
commercial products found in
hospitals, on aeroplanes and in
scientific establishments. We
made the models other companies turned down. As more and
more cheap foreign imports
started to flood our home markets, Lec had to lay off some
workers for the first time in its
history.
I survived that redundancy
of over 500 personnel. It was
then, in 1994, that a Malaysian
consortium bought Lec out and
I then worked for Sime Derby
Berhad. They kept the company
for approximately 11 years and
sold out to GDHA, whose headquarters were based in Ireland,
a company that owned other
white goods manufactures such
as Stoves, Morphy Richards,
etc. By now there had been another two spates of redundancies and the work force was
down to a mere few hundred.
By the beginning of this year,
the work force consisted of just
fewer than 100 employees, of
which half were agency workers, most of whom were Russian, Polish or Czechs.
At the age of 57, I have had
to look for a new job and undergo the harrowing interviewing process. I have seen many
co-workers of my age struggle
to get to an interview, let alone
a job, because of their age, although the Government will
tell you age doesn’t matter;
believe me it does. I have been
rather fortunate and acquired a
new job as a CAD draughtsman
in a Stonemasons company,
mainly working on stone restoration. Therefore I am hop-
ing that there is life in the ‘Old
Dog’ still, they can teach an
‘Old Dog’ new tricks, the grass
is going to be greener, there is a
big wide world out there waiting for me and, in my case, life
begins at 57.
The moral, if there is one, is
don’t despair………someone
out there maybe looking for
your particular skills, even if
you are nearing senior citizenship.
I Spy M
By Asa Butcher
Musicals are just plays ruined
by singing. Have you noticed
how the entire production is
always building to the next
opportunity for the actors to
break into song and perform
a nifty little dance number?
I know that is the point of a
musical, but sometimes it is so
contrived that you can’t help
but slap your forehead in disbelief. For example, “What
are you doing, Asa?” I’m
writing an I Spy. The entire
cast starts to repeatedly whisper, “He’s writing an I Spy!”
Spotlight singles me out, I
stare vacantly at the upper
balconies and begin to sing/
reminisce.
Okay, I admit that not all musicals are this cliché, yet I am
sure you can recall at least one
where that has happened. My
experience with stage musicals
probably pushes double figures
and I will claim that entitles me
to have an opinion, or at least
bitch about the genre in this
column, so be careful or I will
encourage my supporting cast
to start whispering in rhyme in
the background.
Let me state that I do respect
the effort, stamina and skill that
goes into a production, especially the intense physical ef-
fort of the dancers under the hot
lights and performing demanding choreography. However,
recently I have begun to dislike
the idea of musicals, despite seeing a good number of excellent
productions, and this change of
opinion has been influenced by
the influx of musicals inspired
by, well, everything, but primarily the amount of so-called
‘jukebox musicals’.
A jukebox musical is simply
a collection of one group’s
back catalogue tied together
via a plot, although you could
say that concept albums have
a similar idea – look at Pink
Floyd’s The Wall. Many years
ago I went and saw Buddy: The
Buddy Holly Story for the first
time and was thoroughly entertained, plus the plane crash was
tastefully done – no Miss Saigon full-size helicopter effects
that time. Today if you look at
the West End there are dozens
of the things from Good Vibrations (the Beach Boys) to All
Shook Up (Elvis Presley), ABBA’s Mamma Mia! and even
Daddy Cool, with Boney M
songs!
Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing We Will Rock You, a musical obviously based upon the
songs of Queen and written by
comedian Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and
Roger Taylor. The plot sounds
outrageously tongue-in-cheek
and a great deal of fun, with
rock being outlawed in an Orwellian future and, this time, the
guitar is the proverbial sword in
the stone. Hopefully this musical will help draw a line under
Elton’s previous stage musical
The Beautiful Game, a depressing collaboration with Andrew
Lloyd Webber – yes, five par-
agraphs before he was mentioned.
The Beautiful Game was not
as much about football as the
title would have you believe,
with the story following the
main character’s journey to
becoming an IRA terrorist and
unpleasant knee-cappings. Indeed. It was surprising when the
first half of the play ended with
a funeral (and a song) leaving
very few of the audience in the
mood for an interval choc ice or
a Cornetto…”Just one Cornetto, give it to me, delicious icecream, from Italy…” Stop it!
As we all know, Andrew Lloyd
Webber is the lord of stage
musicals, with Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar,
Evita, Starlight Express, The
Phantom of the Opera and Cats,
to name his most famous. I love
Joseph and his coat of many
colours, I never got to see actors on rollerskates, the Phantom only came to me in literary
form, and Cats didn’t have a
single litter tray dance number
or a ballad of the cat’s neutering. Disappointing!
Strangely enough, for my 18th
birthday I decided to indulge
in some culture and my family treated me to three musicals
– a thought that would probably
terrify me today. The first was
the aforementioned Buddy (the
second viewing), Cats was last,
and sandwiched between the
two was The Who’s full-scale
rock opera Tommy - it was a
single name musical showcase.
“Pinball Wizard”, “I’m Free”
and the double-bill “Do You
Think it’s Alright?”/”Fiddle
About” during which the deaf,
dumb and blind Tommy is left
with his uncle Ernie, an alcoholic sexual deviant. A brilliant
musical perhaps because it was
actually a rock musical…rahhh!
Living in Finland has resulted
in Miss Saigon being watched
in Finnish, which became a
touch confusing after the third
of fourth song, and Thanos had
to give me brief updates every
other song in the second half.
Despite this dislike for stage
musicals I do still go and watch
them when I can or can afford
the ticket, yet my final criticism
must go to an alternative musical, namely the film musical. A
waste of my life and, note to the
producers of Evita and Chicago, I will get that lost time back
somehow…just wait and see,
how could you do that to me?
You abused totally my trust,
tempted by Zeta-Jones’ bust you can feel the cast preparing
to join in the rousing chorus!
Curtain down.
Mr. Nicolas & Ms. Anti-Sarkozy
By Thanos Kalamidas
While watching the results of
the first round of the French
elections I heard a French
analyst commenting that in
these elections there were
four winners and one loser.
Democracy had won, Mr.
Sarkozy had won, Ms. Royal
had won, Mr. Bayou had definitely won and Jean-Marie Le
Pen was the big loser. Adding
that this might not be the end
of the French national front
but definitely the end of an
era that lasted too long. The
turnout reached 85% and the
fight just began.
One more winner, at least in my
opinion, was the survey companies. Comparing these elections with the last ones of 2002
is the big return of the survey
companies. Most of them predicted very closely what happened while in the 2002 elections most of them had lost
…control and their results had
been proven totally wrong with
Le Pen coming out from nowhere to be the second rival for
the French presidency.
Le Pen had seen that the end
was near already from the period he was begging the elec-
toral mayors for their support.
His nemesis had been the rightwing Sarkozy, but the stubborn
old wolf refused to accept defeat and went all the way for
his Waterloo. But as the analyst
commented despite the hopes
this is not the end of the French
national front but the end of Le
Pen’s era and the beginning of
a new one with another Le Pen
this time, his daughter!
Mr. Bayou must feel a bit disappointed from the results
– and that’s because he himself
had put too many hopes into his
move - but the truth is that the
small center party made a dramatic entrance into the French
political scene and more likely
will enjoy the profits of this
appearance with some kind of
governmental position since
for the next two weeks the
nearly 20% he got will become
the apple of discord with, most
likely, the socialists taking the
biggest part of it.
The percent of Bayou in combination with the big turnout,
much higher than the 2002
elections despite their critical
messages and the threat of Le
Pen in the penitential palace,
shows that French people had
enough of the two party games.
The center left and the center
right the last few years have
shown that their differences
limited to personal choices and
nothing more and the French
people have sense that demanding a change in the scenery.
Mr. Bayou obviously proved
the right man the right moment
to handle the situation and the
next two years are going to be
very critical for him especially
if he and his party manage to
strengthen their position in next
year’s parliamentary elections.
And the two final rivals ready
for the final battle in two weeks,
Mr. Sarkozy and Ms. Royal.
I don’t know if this has to do
with me living away from the
events but it looks like there
are no conservatives versus socialists and all the theoretical
differences they represent but
there is only Mr. Sarkozy and
Ms. Anti-Sarkozy.
Ms. Royal came out of nowhere
doing all the classic mistakes,
actually there were times she
was like following a book with
the mistakes politicians should
avoid and she did them all.
In the beginning she brought
a minor crisis in the socialist
party and then she wasted her
time answering to Sarkozy’s
provocations that often became
personal; even her style is not
very …presidential despite her
latest charismatic appearances
on television and the thank
you speech after the first elections’ results. She often based
her speeches into the socialist’s
messages and institutions but
without adding anything new
to inspire change.
Mr. Sarkozy from his part he
just …been himself, often letting his mouth leading his brain
and falling in goofs, representing the most conservative parts
of the French society, investing in the fears of the unknown
future that constantly changes
of the average French – that’s
why he managed to attract a
lot of Le Pen supporters. Mr.
Sarkozy’s unique charisma is
to make people either like him
or hate him and that might turn
to be his nemesis. In his thank
you speech after the results of
the elections he gave the message for what is to follow for the
next two weeks. He appeared
presidential, ready to embrace
all French people for the future
France, showing even understanding of a Roman emperor
to his opponent patronizing her
on how they should proceed
with the election campaign.
That’s what is going to be the
next two weeks before the final election, a representation
from both candidates on how
presidential they can be, how
they can unite the French republic including the millions
of immigrants with the right to
vote and the second generation
French. Perhaps it will give us
the chance to see what the vision of the two politicians is for
the future France but most likely we will continue seen Mr.
Sarkozy and Ms. Anti-Sarkozy
battling on former mistakes
their parties have done in the
last three decades.
I don’t like predicting and it
is very early to say anything,
too many things can happen
in the next two weeks, but Mr.
Sarkozy, except the votes of
Le Pen, I’m afraid he will take
another charisma of the old
politician, his talent to unite
his opponents so strongly that
often made them hard to defeat
despite their ideas and origins.
How can I play
hide & seek
when
21 children die
every minute?
Who’ll play football
with me when
21 friends die
every minute?
If I close my
eyes and
count to
a 100.
35 children
are dead.
Conducting history with Boris
By Thanos Kalamidas
As we often say, history will
judge and this most likely
will happen a long time from
now when it comes to Boris
Yeltsin, the former Russian
president who died at the
age of 76 on April 23rd 2007.
This time history will be well
into the future, partly due to
the secrecy that has covered
Emperor Putin’s Russia and
partly because there are people who do have memories of
the first democratic elected
president of Russia.
The best way to understand
what Boris Yeltsin left behind
is the comments heard after
the announcement of his death.
Mikhail Gorbachev, his opponent during the first period of the
Russian democracy was quoted,
“I express my profoundest condolences to the family of the
deceased, who had major deeds
for the good of the country as
well as serious mistakes behind
him.” Perhaps there is a lot of
bitterness behind Gorbachev’s
words but there is a lot of truth
as well.
In his effect to bring a more
Western/American-style
to
Russia, who was just coming
out of a centralized, authorization regime, he led his country
into chaos. His total anti-communist behaviour, even though
he himself was a product of the
Soviet Communist Party, often
led him to make mistakes and
moves that cost the newborn
democracy a great deal, but
you can see from Mikhail Gorbachev’s messages that it will
be hard for Russians to forget
the chaotic years of the ‘90.
It was a period of Russian billionaires and Russian mafia,
and a time when the gap between poor and rich became a
huge canyon. Both Yeltsin and
Gorbachev had the same vision for a democratic Russia,
they just had different ways to
reach a safe result. Gorbachev
believed in the step-by-step approach while Yeltsin wanted
the world and wanted it now,
just like the thirsty for freedom
citizens of Russia.
To succeed, Yeltsin often made
fatal mistakes and, as I said in
the beginning, it will be a long
time before history will be able
to judge him properly, especially his taking over the army
and sometimes using it for his
domination and centralism - he
used it in every effect when his
health was not able to help him
anymore. Vladimir Putin definitely looks like a scary bear
compared to Boris Yeltsin, but
at least you knew that you had
to deal with a scary big bear, his
successor, Putin, acts more like
a weasel and that makes him
perhaps not scary but definitely
dangerous.
And that bring us to another
quote from John Major, the
British prime minister during
the same period. “He was the
first elected Russian president;
he attempted to instil a market
economy in Russia in the most
unpromising
circumstances.
Only a man of great courage
and conviction would have attempted to do it. He sought to
instil in Russia many of the attributes we most cherish in the
West and I think to that extent
he opened up Russia in a way
that continued for a very long
time.”
The Nineties were an era of
big change on both sides of the
Atlantic and John Major found
himself succeeding Margaret
Thatcher trying to continue her
monolithic politics and trying
to balance between the Charismatic Clinton from one side
and the unbalanced Yeltsin on
the other. Unfortunately, I will
always remember Boris Yeltsin
from that day in Germany, since
I was there when he decided
to …conduct the military orchestra. I had tears in my eyes
watching this huge man moving around to the rhythm of the
orchestra and the poor conductor trying to get some control
behind him.
I have the sense that in the
end Boris Yeltsin followed the
destiny of all the former leaders of this huge nation, dying
alone without friends, seeing
his old rivals incapable of fulfilling their vision, his successor creating a new empire like
a monarch and his last companion, vodka, killing him. But as
I said, this is only my opinion,
history will tell us the truth in
the future.
One sure thing, Boris Yeltsin
might have failed to bring the
democracy he was dreaming
of in Russia but he definitely
helped to bring independence
and democracy to the Baltic
countries with first Latvia and
this is a place he will be well
remembered as a hero!
Ovi Bad Boys Podcast
By The Ovi Team
The big six-zero, three-score,
was reached on Sunday 22nd
April and to celebrate another landmark the Ovi Team
are once again promoting the
podcast page. Yes, there is
a podcast page and today it
contains exactly sixty shows
from the past year.
Don’t worry! Download of the
Ovi Bad Boys Podcast is totally
free of charge. On the podcast
page you will find all sixty of
their archived shows, which is
a recording of their weekly live
show broadcast across the Helsinki region on Lähiradio 100.3
MHz, with the licensed music
edited out. Occasionally they
play demos sent in and these
can remain online for your en-
joyment or criticism.
The online shows run between
30 and 45-minutes depending
upon the quantity of music,
chat and interview. Conversation usually revolves around
current events, musical tastes,
sport, their personal lives and
anything else that captures their
attention. In addition, even the
presenter combination varies,
with Asa and Thanos occasionally presenting alone.
They also have guests appear
on the show from time to time,
who are rigorously questioned
and subjected to the presenters’ brand of humour. Unfortunately, the guests also have
to helplessly listen to Asa and
Thanos have countless on-air
arguments – they often sound
like an old married couple.
You are welcome to email about
the show, plus you are free to
send comments, requests and
even your own music if you are
interested in giving your band
some extra exposure. If you
think you would make a good
interview subject, then also use
the following mail:
[email protected]
The online shows can be enjoyed in two easy ways.
The first is to listen online in the
browser window and the second
is to use Apple iTunes, which
can be set-up to automatically
download each new show.
Middle East Nuclear-weapon
Free Zone: A Serious Start?
By Rene Wadlow
Mohamed ElBaradei, Director of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) called on Iran and
Israel to enter into serious negotiations to create a nuclearweapon-free zone in the Middle East — a zone in which
both Israel and Iran would
be members. He was speaking on April 15, 2007 following talks in Jordan with King
Abdullah II. Jordan, caught
between Iraq and growing
tensions between Israel and
Palestine, has been trying to
play a more active role of regional peacemaker.
ElBaradei said “This is the last
chance to build security in the
Middle East based on trust and
cooperation and not the possession of nuclear weapons.” He
stressed that a peace agreement
between Israel and its Arab
neighbors “must be reached in
parallel with a security agreement in the region based on ridding the area of all weapons of
mass destruction.”
It is hard to know if there is a
concerted purpose behind an
increasing number of news reports and analysis of a potential
US or Israeli strike against the
nuclear installations of Iran. It
is very likely that both US and
Israeli strategic planners have
envisaged the possibility of
such strikes. This is, after all,
the job of strategic planners. To
what extent such a dangerous
and basically unrealistic strategy is taken as an option “on the
table” is impossible to know.
What is sure is that the degree
of tension in the Middle East
over Iran, Iraq and Israel-Palestine has been growing. Thus,
responsible leaders are trying
to reduce tensions with proposals for new negotiations — regional talks on the Israel-Palestine conflict, regional talks on
the future of Iraq, negotiations
on a nuclear-weapon-free zone
in the Middle East or a broader Organization for Security
and Cooperation in the Middle
East.
The hazards of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East has
existed since Israel developed
its “bomb in the basement” and
was widely discussed in the
early 1980s after Israeli forces destroyed the French-built
nuclear reactor near Baghdad
in June 1981. (1) Among the
community of international relations scholars and strategic
theorists, nuclear proliferation
has always had its ardent supporters who believe that security is increased by enlarging the
number of states with credible
deterrence. This view of nuclear proliferation is often referred
to as the “porcupine theory” because it suggests that a nuclear
weapon state can walk like a
porcupine through the forests of
international affairs: no threat
to its neighbors, too prickly for
predators to swallow.
It was the French Air Force
General Pierre Gallois who was
the most eloquent champion of
the porcupine approach writing “If every nuclear power
held weapons truly invulnerable to the blows of the other,
the resort to force by one to the
detriment of the other would
be impossible.” However, the
Middle East is filled not with
porcupines but with men who
may not be immune to irrationality. Irrationality at national
leadership levels are known in
world politics, and risk-taking
even by rational leaders can get
out of control. Thus, with the
current impossibility of having
a nuclear-weapon-free world,
the concept of regional nuclearweapon-free zones has spread.
The concept of nuclear-weapon-free zones has been an important concept in disarmament
and regional conflict reduction
efforts. A nuclear-weapon-free
zone was first suggested by the
Polish Foreign Minister Adam
Rapacki at the United Nations
General Assembly in October 1957 — just a year after
the crushing of the uprising in
Hungary. The crushing of the
Hungarian revolt by Soviet
troops and the unrest among
Polish workers at the same
time showed that the East-West
equilibrium in Central Europe
was unstable with both the Soviet Union and the USA in possession of nuclear weapons,
and perhaps a willingness to
use them if the political situation became radically unstable.
The Rapacki Plan, as it became
known, called for the denu-
clearization of East and West
Germany, Czechoslovakia and
Poland.
The Plan went through several
variants which included its extension to cover the reduction
of armed forces and armaments,
and as a preliminary step, a
freeze on nuclear weapons in
the area. The Rapacki Plan was
opposed by the NATO powers,
in part because it recognized
the legitimacy of the East German state. It was not until 1970
and the start of what became
the 1975 Helsinki Conference
on Security and Cooperation
in Europe that serious negotiations on troop levels and weapons in Europe began. While the
Rapacki Plan never led to negotiations on nuclear-weapon
policies in Europe, it had the
merit of re-starting East-West
discussions which were then at
a dead point.
The first nuclear-weapon-free
zone to be negotiated — the
Treaty of Tlatelolco — was a
direct aftermath of the Cuban
missile crisis of October 1962.
It is hard to know how close to
a nuclear exchange between the
USA and the USSR was the Cuban missile crisis. It was close
enough so that Latin American
leaders were moved to action.
While Latin America was not
an area in which military confrontation was as stark as in Europe, the Cuban missile crisis
was a warning that you did not
need to have standing armies
facing each other for there to be
danger.
Mexico under the leadership of
Ambassador Alfonso GarciaRobles at the UN began immediately to call for a denuclearization of Latin America. There
were a series of conferences,
and in February 1967 the Treaty
for the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons in Latin America was
signed at Tlatelolco, Mexico.
For a major arms control treaty,
the Tlateloco was negotiated in
a short time, due partly to the
fear inspired by the Cuban missile crisis but especially to the
energy and persistence of Garcia-Robles and the expert advice of William Epstein, then
the U.N.’s Director of Disarmament Affairs. The Treaty
established a permanent and effective system of control which
contains a number of novel and
pioneering elements as well as
a body to supervise the Treaty.
On 8 September 2006, the five
states of Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan
signed the treaty establishing a
nuclear-weapon-free zone. The
treaty aims at reducing the risk
of nuclear proliferation and nuclear-armed terrorism. The treaty bans the production, acquisition, deployment of nuclear
weapons and their components
as well as nuclear explosives.
Importantly, the treaty bans the
hosting or transport of nuclear
weapons as both Russia and the
USA have established military
airbases in Central Asia where
nuclear weapons could have
been placed in times of crisis in
Asia.
The treaty was signed at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan which
was the main testing site for
Soviet nuclear tests. Between
1949 and 1989, some 500 nuclear tests took place at Semipalatinsk leaving a heritage of
radioactivity and health problems. A non-governmental organization “Nevada-Semipalatinsk” was formed in the 1980s
of persons in the USA and the
USSR who had lived in the nuclear-weapon test areas. Its aim
was to work to abolish nuclear
weapons and to push compensation for the persons suffering
from the medical consequences
of the tests. Thus, Rusten Tursunbaev, the vice President of
“Nevada-Semipalatinsk” could
say “The signing of the agreement on a nuclear-weaponfree zone in Central Asia is a
remarkable, unbelievable moment and event — not just for
Central Asia, but for the whole
world.”
It is an unfortunate aspect of
world politics that constructive, institution-building action
is usually undertaken only because of a crisis. The growing
pressure building in the Middle
East could lead to concerted
leadership for a Middle East
nuclear-weapon-free zone. The
IAEA has the technical knowledge for putting such a zone in
place. (2). Now there needs to
be leadership from within the
Middle East states as well as
broader international encouragement. ElBaradei’s appeal
may be the sign of a serious
start.
Notes:
(1) See Shai Feldman. Israeli Nuclear
Deterrence: A Strategy for the 1980s
(New York: Columbia University
Press, 1982)
Louis Rene Beres (ed.). Security or
Armageddon (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1985)
Roger Pajak. Nuclear Proliferation
in the Middle East (Washington, DC:
The National Defense University,
1982)
(2) See Michael Hamel-Green. Regional Initiatives on Nuclear-and
WMD-Free Zones (Geneva: United
Nations Institute for Disarmament
Research, 2005)
“Only takes one tree to
make 1,000 matches
Only takes one match to
burn a thousand trees”
- ‘A Thousand Trees’ by the Stereophonics
Health care
By Judy Eichstedt
Imagine your child is crying
because he or she does not feel
well. Your child has a fever
and is throwing up. You walk
the floor; child in arms doing
your best to comfort the child
but nothing seems to work.
A cold towel is placed on the
child’s head to help the fever
go down. The child will not eat
and its clear she is very ill. As
any parent your heart is broken in two because your child
that you love is suffering.
Picture in your mind a mother
who, as she holds her sick child,
is calling doctor after doctor trying to find help for her child only
to be told rudely over and over
we can’t help you because you
have no insurance, but we will
take cash. The mother pleads
with the doctor and makes
promises of paying later knowing very well she could never
dig up the money to pay the bill.
Frustrated and angry she slams
the phone down.
The need of the poor shall not
always be forgotten
Take it a step further and pretend you have worked hard all
your life in back-breaking labor
at a low-paying job that takes
for granted that you need the job
to survive and you won’t dare to
make waves of any kind. The
boss is able to scream at you
and treat you as less then human
and all you can do is stand there
and take it. You’re reduced to
a slave and trained to obey the
masters.
You work long hours and, six
days a week, never see your
family that you’re working so
hard to support. You, for the
most part, do the work nobody
else wants to do, the dirty jobs
and the hard ones that leave you
dead tired at the end of the workday. Oh yes and you have no
medical insurance whatsoever.
In fact, there are no raises and
not a single perk of any kind.
You struggle daily to avoid having your utilities shut off and
worry what will happen if you
or your children get sick.
you’re ill and you don’t have a
clue what is wrong. You know
you need to see a doctor but
you’re too poor to afford such
a luxury. Perhaps you should
not pay the rent and risk being
evicted but at least you could
see a doctor. Maybe you cannot
pay your water bill and use that
money. After all it won’t be so
bad going a month or so without
running water.
Blessed is the poor for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven
These are the decisions millions
of human beings must make
everyday of their lives. They
are hard-working people who
are denied health care because
they are poor. Is it possible that
the homeless and poor, the low
income workers are viewed as
unworthy or of no value so they
suffer in silence?
For just a moment or two, as
scary as it will be, place yourself
into the body of someone working at minimum wage. Let us
say a single mother working at
a fast food restaurant with customers complaining about their
food order and you’re trying to
be as nice as you can in spite of
how you’re being treated. As
you rush to get out orders working as fast as you can your legs
start to pain because you have
been on your feet for four hours
now without a rest.
All the time your mind is trying
to come up with a way to take
your children to the doctors because they have the flu. You are
worried to a state of depression
because two of your children
need to see a dentist but you
have no insurance or money
to pay for it. Two of your own
teeth were so bad causing you
great pain so you pulled them
out yourself. It took over a week
of twisting your teeth to make
them loose so you could pull
them out.
Blessed is he who considers the
poor
Pretend for a moment that
In America there is no excuse
whatsoever not to have every
American covered by health insurance. Well, except for greed
and selfishness. Millions are not
able to pay for health care and so
they just do without. Many companies now try and save money
by doing away with health care
for the workers. The bottom line
is that no one should ever be denied health care.
The American workers are suffering greatly and their cries
fall on deaf ears. If companies
in America are permitted to do
a way with health care for all
the hard working Americans
the disaster that will follow will
cripple America. The suffering
going on behind closed doors
is clearly a disgrace to us all as
children of god. He who shuts
his ear to the cry of the poor
shall also cry and not be heard.
Farewell Slava
By Thanos Kalamidas
It is a month ago since many
of us watched on our television screens a very old Mstislav “Slava”* Rostropovich
walking with the assistance
of the Russian president
Vladimir Putin and entering a Kremlin hall where he
celebrated his 80th birthday.
As he said himself very slowly
and with a real effect that was
a really big honor for him and
nothing could keep him away
from it.
I think the entire honor is ours
and personas like Mstislav Rostropovich don’t belong only to
Russia but are part of an economic history we should preserve in any way. To use Putin’s
words: Rostropovich was not
only a brilliant cellist and a gifted conductor but with his personality and the weight of his
popularity he became a critical
defender of the human rights
when his country needed that
more than anything. His stand
to defend Alexander Soltzhenitsyn from the Soviet state cost
him twenty years in exile where
he continued opposing the Soviet state.
The cello is not an easy instrument, not easily recognizable
and definitely not popular, or at
least it was all that till Rostropovich appeared and if you want
to understand what I mean you
must listen to Prokofiev’s Cello
concertino, something Rostropovich finished with Dmitri
Kabalevsky after the composer’s death. A magnificent piece
where the big man embraces the
cello becomes one with it and
you can hear his breath through
the notes. The man gave personality to the instrument and that
was the reason composers like
Shostakovich, Khachaturian,
Bernstein, Britten and others
composed music inspired from
his playing and talent.
For the ones who have seen it,
you must remember the way
Rostropovich was embracing
the cello, the way he was becoming one with the instrument
on the stage and the soft way he
was moving while he was playing. It is so odd, a few years after I saw him playing cello I had
the luck to see him conducting
as well. It was exactly the same
presentation, the big man on the
podium that softly moved with
the music and you had the idea
that he was still holding the big
cello.
The recordings of Rostropovich’s cello performances are
classic and definitely part of
every classic music lover’s collection. I would say his performances with Shostakovich’s
composes are my personal favorites.
Regarding his political side I
would say that it was natural for
a man who had devoted his life
into art, a man who believed
that art has no frontiers and restrictions; it was natural to react
badly to a regime full of restrictions and controls. Especially
when that came to his close
friend Alexander Soltzhenitsyn
and you can sense how heavy
were all these restrictions comparing his activities till 1974
when he was in Russia and his
activities after 1974. Founder
of music festivals and organizer of a series of events that
promoted classic music to new
and younger listeners.
Mstislav Rostropovich died on
the 27th of April 2007 after being hospitalized since February
with a small break for his 80th
birthday.
*Slava, an affection nick-name
often used by his friends and
pupils.
Fasten your seatbelts
By Asa Butcher
“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s
going to be a bumpy night!”
declares Bette Davis in her
immortal line and her advice should be taken to heart
because All About Eve is a
superb film that demands
repeated viewings. Its 14 nominations, six wins and record
for the greatest number of
female acting Oscar nominations tells you that this is/was
a movie masterpiece, which
has yet to be cannibalised
with a remake.
The 1950s marked the start of
an incredible decade of films
beginning with Sunset Blvd.,
The Asphalt Jungle, The Third
Man and Adam’s Rib, to name
just four from 1950. However,
All About Eve managed to collect together considerable talent
for this production including actors Bette Davis, Anne Baxter,
Celeste Holm, George Sanders
and a young Marilyn Monroe,
plus writer/director Joseph L.
Mankiewicz and legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck.
Zanuck was one of the biggest
moguls of Hollywood’s studio system due to his talent for
producing films that would not
only become successful at the
Box Office and scoop awards,
but would also become timeless masterpieces. He was the
man behind films such as How
Green Was My Valley, The
Longest Day, The Grapes of
Wrath and Gentleman’s Agreement, which also won Best Picture and starred Celeste Holm.
One of the reasons I decided
to review All About Eve was
Celeste Holm, who reaches the
grand age of 90 today and is the
only star of the film still alive.
She played Karen Richards, the
wife of a popular playwright,
who introduces the seemingly
shy Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) to Margo Channing (Bette
Davis), a highly regarded but
aging Broadway actress. Eve
ingratiates herself into Channing’s life, eventually threatening Channing’s career and her
personal relationships.
The story is hypnotic, spellbinding, well, let’s say that the
138-minutes fly by without
you even noticing, which is the
sign of a great movie. This is
primarily due to Bette Davis,
a name with which everybody
is familiar, but how many have
actually seen her act? Her performance in All About Eve has
been ranked #5 in Premiere
magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time and famous critic Roger Ebert stated
it was Davis’s greatest career
performance, so what more can
I add?
Unfortunately Davis was unable to win her third Academy
Award for Acting due to her
co-star Anne Baxter pushing
to also be included in the main
acting category thereby splitting the votes and presenting the
win to Judy Holliday in Born
Yesterday. However, George
Sanders did win Best Actor in a
Supporting Role and he was incredible as the theatre critic Addison DeWitt – what a name! It
was Sanders’ voice that really
won the Oscar, in my opinion,
due to its, its, its rolling menace, which would explain why
he provided the voice for the
evil tiger Shere Khan in Dis-
ney’s The Jungle Book.
Sanders’ also gets to perform
the only act of violence in the
film, namely slapping Ann
Baxter’s manipulative Eve – although you do feel happy he
has done the deed. Baxter truly
makes your skin crawl with her
performance as Eve and her
psychological games, yet during the film’s final scenes the
twist makes you feel sympathy
for her…not much. It was also
interesting to discover that she
was the granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
An honourable mention should
go to screen siren Marilyn Monroe, as Miss Caswell, in one
of her first big screen outings,
which were beginning to add
up with her appearance in John
Huston’s excellent The Asphalt
Jungle the same year. Monroe
delivers some good lines and
brings a breath of fresh air to
the scenes in which she appears, plus you can see why Zsa
Zsa Gabor, Sanders’ wife at the
time, hung around set to ensure
her husband’s eyes didn’t wander – mine did!
All About Eve set the scene for
a decade of magnificent filmmaking and it is reassuring
that, for once, I know that not
all the stars have passed away.
The production of these classics makes it hard to remember
that they were made over 50
years ago due to their timeless
qualities, but they were and I
can only hope that nobody ever
decides a modern remake is in
order. Happy 90th birthday to
Celeste Holm!
It’s Vappu!
By Richard Berman
Party, party, party, that’s
what the Fins do anyway. The
best translation for the word
‘vappu’ is Labor Day, and
it is the day that most people who drink in Finland are
drunk. If you’re not drunk, it
either means you don’t drink,
you’re working, ill, or with the
children, but being with the
children does not stop some: I
walked past a terrace yesterday and there was a little boy,
maybe five-years-old, eating
his Hesburger, while his mum
and dad were having a few
shots and a couple of beers,
but that another story.
The history of Vappu is the memorial day of Saint Labor, it is
the holiday of spring, plus it is a
university students and workers
international festival; it is also
a day for demonstrating. The
Finns have celebrated Vappu
since 1890.
It’s a great day for workers,
since you get a full day’s pay,
and students get to wear their
funny white sailor hats. When
I first saw them, I thought that
Finland had some big boat race
in town, but these hats are pre-
sented when they get their degree and Vappu is the only day
of the year you can legitimately
wear it again. One tradition that
happens every year involves
about 20 students hung on
ropes from a crane for the capping of the Havis Amanda, a
nude female statue in the centre
of Helsinki.
It is one big party. Everyone
heads to the nearest city on
Monday afternoon and drinks
until the early hours of the
morning, while the under-18s
hang around the streets with
their friends – yes, the bars are
packed.
The younger children dress up,
with masks, make-up, spray
cans of silly string, party poppers, and go around town
looking for the festivals in the
town centre. They go and collect sweets off the ground that
the students had thrown from
trucks moving around town.
Big Balloons are also a major
part, plus they are helpfully
sold everywhere you go - the
kids love them.
On the Tuesday morning it is a
late start for some, getting over
their hangover, but this is the
day that you spend with your
family, just like Christmas, but
you go out to eat in nice restaurant. Therefore the restaurants
are very busy this day, so many
people plan well before where
they will be eating that day.
Families also go for picnics in
the large parks around Finland.
I think the Finnish Government
must budget the money to clean
up after this night, since if you
go into town early on Tuesday
morning you get to see the large
clean up team working hard
to make the town centre nice
again after the night of partying
in time for the people coming
back into town for lunch or picnics.
One good thing about Finland is
most of the empty beer bottles
give you money back from the
shops when you return them, so
there is always a team of people making a bit of extra cash
by going around the cities on
Monday night collecting.
So if you are in Finland on May
1st, get ready for the night of
your life: You will never have
seen anything like this before.
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