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Posts from the Don't Look Now Category
Editing To Mimic The Mind's Eye Vision
At this moment, it was still very much style over substance. But this would soon change.
Donald Cammell / Nicolas Roeg, 1970
Cinematography | Nicolas Roeg
Having the opportunity to interview or chat with a filmmaker is always interesting, but once in a while it can be somewhat magical. From time to time a highly respected and successful film artist manages to escape the limitations of celebrity. Not all celebrated filmmakers live in bubbles.
And while it often feels a thing of the past, there are still filmmakers who are more concerned with filmmaking as an art form than as the opportunity for the wealth of a franchise. No artist desires creating work that fails to connect with an audience, but there are some who are far more concerned with a personal vision than worrying about selling tickets. While this can create limitations for the filmmaker, it also presents a great level of freedom.
BBC Arena Portrait
Photograph | David Thompson, 2015
One such filmmaker is Nicolas Cage. If you've ever watched or read an interview with eccentric auteur you will be aware that his style of conversing is at once intellectual and rather free-form. His style of discussing his work, history and ideas often ramble, but they never miss their mark.
If you've ever had the pleasure of listening to Nicolas Roeg speak, you will note a highly intelligent and genuine man. It is impossible to miss the fact that he is so filled with ideas that he tends talk in meandering and circular logic sentences. Last year, after overcoming more than a few challenges, The Criterion Collection re-mastered and re-issued Don't Look Now. It features a discussion filmed in 2003 at London's Ciné Lumière. It is an entertaining discussion and fully captures the way in which Roeg communicates. More importantly, it lets us see how he thinks and more than a little insight into how he makes films. He has always stretched cinematography and film editing to the limits to mimic the ways the human mind works. It may not always appear logical if we can slow down long enough to notice the jumbled order of our thoughts, but we are able to connect the dots of our odd assortment of ideas to lead us to the ways in which we operate.
If there is one element that shines through when listening to Mr. Roeg is the constant desire to find ways for film to connect with the human brain. When he made his debut as a film director it was a collaboration with writer/director, Donald Cammell.
There is a great deal more going on behind James Fox's "Johnny's" violent actions than simple thuggery.
That debut film was Performance. Essentially a thriller in which a thug makes the mistake of hiding out in the home of rock star and his two groupies. The "thrill" aspect of the film takes a long fall as the film quickly evolves into a surrealistic study of a drug-fueled, hallucinogenic trip into identity. The film remains firmly seated as a dated but groundbreaking film of its time featuring Mick Jagger playing the odd rock star who pulls James Fox into a great deal more than his own isolated world.
"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."
There only appears to be no rules…
It is an iconic film. It is also offers a key insight into what would soon become Nic Roeg's life long pursuit toward a whole new kind of cinematic language. The idea of filming and editing a film to reflect the inner-workings of the human mind is forming. As Performance was a collaborative effort and firmly rooted in the culture of late 1960's Swinging London world of fashion, rock and drugs — the uses of this idea never fully form. Instead the film often employs stylistic choices of jittery fast cuts and odd perspectives that are as ornamental as they are meaningful. Even still Roeg's approach human thought as a method of plot projection is there.
Even the smallest creatures fight to survive. A picnic in the outback turns into a journey of cruel awakening, self-discovery and survival. A Cinematographer becomes an Auteur.
Nicolas Roeg, 1971
Nicolas Roeg's true directorial debut is filled with ideas and unique perceptions. A brother and sister escape the insanity of their troubled father to find themselves in the wilds of The Australian Outback. The title of the film comes from the Aboriginal concept of a male's journey to adulthood. And with the assistance of a young man in the middle of his tribal ritual "walkabout" — the siblings journey through adversity and mystery toward their own adulthood.
What constantly threatens danger springs forward into a celebration of life's possibilities…
Along the way cultural differences cause confusion and alarm. It is a film about survival thanks to human kindness. But more than anything it is a startling view of how racism and cultural differences are so engrained, no amount of human kindness can make them go away. Roeg's camera captures reality through a sort of surrealistic lens. The careful use of Antony Gibbs and Alan Pattillos' editing allow us to view the realities and revelations from the perspective of two young adults and a child. It is here that we get a glimpse of identity perspective through the way the characters' minds take in and view individual perceptions of experience.
A beautiful and tragic experimental film about both the strengths and flaws of the human condition. Another idea is put forward that hints that as our society applies more and more pressures, the concept of a walkabout could become a new sort of ritual for human beings contained within a society that only appears to offer safety and protection.
A young man takes a look at the land of his future and a shot becomes an iconic image.
David Gulpilil
When one watches Roeg's 1980's Bad Timing, a story of lust turned to obsession that not only pushes both individuals to the limits — it pulls one of them into the darkest corners of insanity. Bad Timing is graphic in the use of nudity, but the story it tells is not all that unusual. What makes this film standout as a work of cinematic art is the blending and discordant use of plot points into a fluid labyrinthine of perspectives that is often almost impossible to follow. The concept of flashback story-telling takes an almost hysterical detour into uncharted territories.
What often feels like a murder mystery is really far more complex in what it attempts to do. Bad Timing dares to toss a number of film genres our way, but the goal here is not suspense or even mystery. This film charts the deterioration of both the human mind and psyche after the requirements of desire, lust and sexual obsession have overtaken the rational.
"I'll be dead in a minute; just wanted to say good-bye."
Who is in control? Who is being seduced? And in what order are these experiences happening?
Art Garfunkel / Theresa Russell
Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond
Tony Lawson's editing of Anthony B. Richmond's oddly framed cinematography shifts the viewer perspective into a strange flow that is challenging to grasp. The majority of film critics and audiences at the time tended to dismiss the film. Art Garfunkel's low-key performance mixing with Harvey Keitel's intensity and Theresa Russell's unhinged demonstration of carnal obsession often feels like a cinematic experiment with celluloid as rubber band. Bad Timing was so strange at the time it was released that it would take a good decade before it would be reconsidered and re-evaluated for the exceptional film it is. This film remains strange and refuses to give in.
"You tell the truth about a lie so beautifully." Art Garfunkel / Theresa Russell Bad Timing Nicolas Roeg, 1980 Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond
Don't Look Now takes us to a Venice steeped in decay, sadness and uncertain dangers. We are led through a series of seemingly endless loop of dark tunnels. We pass over aged bridges in a fog of mystery. Hope can become deadly. Grief can become a release. Like life, nothing is at it appears. Constantly shifting back and forth in time which only becomes obvious upon a second screening. Everything is viewed with disconnected logic and paranormal hindsight. There is a constant confusion of "real-time" with conscious and subconscious perceptions. An unrelenting sense of déjà vu that our protagonist refuses to own or fully evaluate.
Nothing is what it appears…
Don't Look Now
A cinematic masterwork that captures a young couple trying to re-connect and support each other in order to survive the worst experience life can offer. It is a truly horrific film that somehow manages to be both beautiful and hauntingly sad. This is a surreal horror film about love, guilt, connections and grief.
"This one who's blind. She's the one that can see."
This controversial 1973 film remains Roeg's most successful film. Don't Look Now is perhaps the best example of how Nicolas Roeg's films work.
These films are about a whole lot more than seeing — these films are about how we think.
Matty Stanfield, 2.8.2016
Brian Smedley-Aston
Graphic Nudity
Graphic Sexuality
February 8th by Matty Stanfield in	Anthony B. Richmond Antony Gibbs Art House Cinema Bad Timing British Film Cinematic Arts Cinematic Imprint Cinematic Intent Cinematic Journey Cinematic Language Cinematic Masterpiece Cinematic Style Cinematography Cinephile Criterion Collection Cult Film Cultural Commentary Cultural Memory Don't Look Now Dream Logic Dreams Eroticism Existentialism Experimental Cinema Experimental Film Film Film Acting Film Actors Film Art Film Artists Film Criticsm Film Directors Film Editing Film Evaluation Film Theory Graeme Clifford Human Psyche Human Thought Identity Independent Film Influential Cinema Intellectualism Matty Stanfield Nicolas Roeg Provocative Film Psychology Psychotronic Sexuality Subliminal Editing Surrealism The Criterion Collection The Man Who Fell To Earth Tony Lawson Truth Walkabout
"Nothing is as it seems." or The Pure Cinema of Nicolas Roeg
After a decade in a successful career in cinematography, Nicolas Roeg found his way into the director's chair. This led to a string of unforgettable films that blended his unique camera perspectives with an even more experimental editing to form
"I'm not a scientist. But I know all things begin and end in eternity." David Bowie reflects in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicolas Roeg, 1976.
Film Editor | Graeme Clifford
much more than cinematic stories. Nicolas Roeg used cinematography, editing and obsessions to form film art that seeps into the senses that often lift the viewer into an experience that is more than unforgettable. Roeg's cinematic voice reaches almost hypnotic levels. He creates atmosphere, tension, eroticism and human introspection that calls us to revisit his films.
"This one who's blind. She's the one that can see." Hilary Mason's character may be blind, but she is the only character who can actually 'see' in Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973.
With each revisit, the viewer discovers new aspects, ideas and meanings. Roeg quickly established a strong connection with both Cinematographer, Anthony B. Richmond and Film Editor, Graeme CliffordIn early on. Eventually, he would also establish a new film editing connection with Tony Lawson. These "connections" ran deep. In Roeg's hands, filmmaking is no longer reduced to "orchestrated collaboration" "craft" or "storytelling" — Roeg's cinematic work takes these fundamental concepts related to movie making to the level of true Film Art.
Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russells' "terrifying obsession took them to the brink of death and beyond." Bad Timing, Nicolas Roeg, 1980.
Film Editor | Tony Lawson
It is more than a complex collaboration between the filmmaker and his/her cinematography and editor, in Nicolas Roeg's work — it is clear that their is more than a shared aesthetic, the intermingling of all three aspects of filmmaking feel to be forming together in a genetic sort of alchemy. This is the magic of Pure Cinema.
The influence of Nicolas Roeg is undeniable. He has inspired far too many filmmakers to list. And, if one did comprise a list it would reflect a wide range of cinematic visionaries. Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle and François Ozon are just a few notably varied filmmakers who have listed Roeg as a strong influence.
It is often the most seemingly surprisingly magnified small detail that means so much. Candy Clark pours a drink. "You know Tommy, you're a freak. I don't mean that unkindly…" with questionable intent in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicolas Roeg, 1976.
It is also important to note that Nicolas Roeg has never taken the stance of "Film Artiste" — Despite the complexities of what one discovers in his films, he has consistently dismissed the idea that he has ever pursued a film with one sole purpose. Instead, he will often shrug off aspects of his work as "accidental" or "luck" — And further to the point, Roeg claims to have never set out to rebel against fixed ideas of what cinema should be. He has always expressed how important his early work as a part of a camera unit or cinematographer were essential so the he could gain the essential knowledge of film craftsmanship. He once was quoted, "The rules are learnt in order to be broken, but if you don't know them, then something is missing."
"The churches belong to God, but he doesn't seem to care about them." Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973
The use of sound and image do not always match in Nicolas Roeg's cinematic world. What we are "allowed" to see is not always what we think we "want" to see. Mirrors and all aspects of reflection begin to take on added significance as these films move forward. The use of mirrors serves as far more than presenting an interesting thought — they are the tools that these characters discover everything insights into existentialism, desire, fear, vanity, gender roles and identity. The reflection of mirrors and glass have a similar impact on the audience but with added psychological dimensions that are inaccessible to the characters.
""I've used mirrors in a lot of movies. I think the mirror is an extraordinary thing, also the reflective, a reflection in water etc. Don't you think it's something strange that you rarely look at yourself in the mirror, except to do things like stand and ponder? " Nicolas Roeg on the use of mirrors in his films. Here, James Fox, is forced to not only re-evaluate his identity but his gender in Performance, Nicolas Roeg & Donald Cammell, 1970
Like many great artists, Nicolas Roeg is sometimes so ahead of the audience that a film may fail to connect. This was the case with the controversial study of sexual desire turned to obsessions that potentially lead to insanity or something far worse. Largely dismissed when it was released, it has since gained much more success with audiences as time has passed.
Bad Timing, Nicolas Roeg, 1980
Cinematographer | Anthony B. Richmond
Roeg's interests in how men and women connect sexually often become a core element found in every film. In Bad Timing he allowed his and the characters' obsessions to overflow with a level of intensity that often resulted in confused responses. Seven years earlier, in Don't Look Now, he created an almost uncomfortably level of erotic intimacy between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland that so shocked audiences that it is still a matter of discussion when the film is screened. The reality of sexuality becomes heightened to the abnormal in Bad Timing, but sexuality is used in a casually realistic way in Don't Look Now.
Julie Christie and Donald Sutherlands' characters infamously make love and cause Movie Rumor that remains today in Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973
Viewers in 1980 seemed to have had a difficult time finding "reality" in the sex of Bad Timing. But well over 30 years later, the infamous sex scene in Don't Look Now "feels" so real that many insist on believing that Sutherland and Christy were actually engaging in penetrative sex. The magical use of sex in Don't Look Now is that it slowly dawns on the audience that this graphic display of sexual connection is not used for titaliation, but to capture the all too human need to connect to his/her lover in times of grief. It is a reconnection that almost helps this marriage in crisis pull itself out of disaster. Well, almost.
Another aspect of Roeg's approach to his films that is rather thrilling is the ever present use of Surrealism. But it is the almost casual way in which surrealism mixes in with blunt realism. A level of disorientation flows off the screen because while we think we know that some of what we are seeing is "surreal" — it could almost as easy be called "real"
The Man Who Fell To Earth is a great example of film which refuses to ground itself into any conventional genre: Is it satire? Or is it an oddly 'realistic' Sci-Fi? Maybe it is dark humored metaphorical study of humankind? Is it surrealism? Is it about owning our identity no matter how our society tries to suppress us?
The Man Who Fell To Earth, Nicolas Roeg, 1976
What is real and what is often tangible but not easily labeled is often the most important aspect of our journey. Nicolas Roeg once noted, "I love that perhaps we don't see the things that are there because we have no reliable yardstick to see things by, to compare them."
Pass the warning…
Over the last several years I have had the pleasure of spending a great deal of time with Don't Look Now. As it made its way from the muddy VHS transfer to an improved but still lacking quality when it was released on DVD in both the US/UK to the beautifully restored version issued to blu-ray/DVD by the magic-makers at Criterion. I've needed to watch this film a number of times for various reasons. I've lost count of how many times I have seen it in the last three years. But every time I watch it, I notice something new. Never have I seen a film so disturbingly horrific turn itself into something of altogether different that can only be termed as "Human" beauty.
"One of your children has posed a curious question: if the world is round, why is a frozen lake flat?" The answer to his daughter's question is far more complex than Donald Sutherland can fully grasp. He fights against his instincts in Don't Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973
Don't Look Now takes us to a Venice steeped in decay, sadness and uncertain dangers. We are led through a series of seemingly endless loop of dark tunnels. We pass over aged bridges in a fog of mystery. Hope can become deadly. Grief can become a release. Like life, nothing is at it appears.
If you've ever had the pleasure of listening to Nicolas Roeg speak, you will note a highly intelligent and genuine man. It is impossible to miss the fact that he is so filled with ideas that he tends talk in meandering and circular sentences. The newly released Criterion edition of Don't Look Now features a discussion filmed in 2003 at London's Ciné Lumière. It is an entertaining discussion and, in some ways, a revealing way in which Roeg not only communicates — but how he thinks.
And, this, to me, adds insight into the way he views film editing. There is not so much concern with editing a film in a linear or altogether logical way — because when we really think about it — Our minds are constantly racing through ideas, memories, feelings, emotions, worries and ever spinning topics as we navigate through ever part of our day.
gets the Criterion treatment. Now available on DVD/Blu-Ray
Nicolas Roeg's movies strive to capture worlds through the lens of the human mind's perspective. Our mind never fully allows our eyes, ears and senses to fully focus on one thing. Instead, our minds take in everything at once and while we are largely successful at deciphering our experience of the world and the situations we experience. It is only long after something has happened that we have the opportunity to "process' an event. This is perhaps the strongest element to be found in the way Nicolas Roeg often transcends the normally anticipated scope of a movie.
I recently discovered a website called The TalkHouse which features brilliantly insightful writing and articles related to art.
Exceptional and Valuable insights regarding art can be found at TalkHouse.
http://thetalkhouse.com
Lance Edmands is a film artist himself and one of the contributors to the site. He has written a great piece in which he deconstructs Don't Look Now's opening sequence. If you've not visited The TalkHouse or read anything by Lance Edmands, I encourage you to follow this link. He offers a far more in-depth discussion of Roeg's experimental work.
http://thetalkhouse.com/film/talks/lance-edmands-bluebird-talks-nicolas-roegs-dont-look-now/
Cinematic Perspective
Human Connection
Human Logic
Hypnotic Cinema
London's Ciné Lumière
Non-Linear
Nothing is as it seems
Parnormal
Psychological Film Editing
The Talk House
The Way of the Mind
Unique Perspective
June 22nd by Matty Stanfield in	Anthony B. Richmond Art Garfunkel Bad Timing Candy Clark Cinematic Clues Cinematography Creative Arts Cult Film Don't Look Now Film Film Art Film Criticism Film Editing Film Theory Graeme Clifford Hilary Mason Influential Cinema Lance Edmands Matty Stanfield Nicolas Roeg Pure Cinema Subliminal Editing The Man Who Fell To Earth The TalkHouse Theresa Russell Tony Lawson Visual Impact


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Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism (Hardcover)
By Nadya Tolokonnikova
"Stylish, striking, and elegantly packaged...as indispensible to confronting, say, your domineering mother-in-law or your local city council as it is to helping foment an ongoing and ever-escalating insurrection against, say, a sexist, racist, nepotistic power-mad oligarchy threatening to destory democracy as we know it...My advice: Buy one"--VOGUE
From artist, activist, and Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, a guerilla guide to radical protest and joyful political resistance
The face of modern protest is wearing a brightly colored ski mask.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot, is a creative activist, professional protestor, brazen feminist, shocking visual artist, and force to be reckoned with. Her spontaneous, explosive approach to political action has involved jumping over barbed wire, kissing police officers, giving guerilla performances in crowded subway cars, and going on a hunger strike to protest the abuse of prisoners. She's been horse-whipped by police in Sochi, temporarily blinded when officers threw green paint in her eyes, and monitored by the Russian government. But what made Nadya an activist icon overnight happened on February 21, 2012, when she was arrested for performing an anti-Putin protest song in a Moscow church.
She was sent to a Russian prison for 18 months and emerged as an international symbol of radical resistance, as calls to "Free Pussy Riot" resounded around the world. With her emblematic ski mask, black lipstick, and unwavering bravery, Nadya has become an emissary of hope and optimism despite overwhelming and ugly political corruption.
Read & Riot is structured around Nadya's ten rules for revolution (Be a pirate! Make your government shit its pants! Take back the joy!) and illustrated throughout with stunning examples from her extraordinary life and the philosophies of other revolutionary rebels throughout history. Rooted in action and going beyond the typical "call your senator" guidelines, Read & Riot gives us a refreshing model for civil disobedience, and encourages our right to question every status quo and make political action exciting—even joyful.
NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA is an artist, political activist, and founding member of Pussy Riot. She is the recipient of The Lennon Ono Grant for Peace, and is a co-recipient of The Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. Following her release in 2013, she opened the Mordovia office of Zona Prava, a prisoners' rights non-governmental organization. Later, she started MediaZona, an independent news service now partnered with The Guardian.
"not just a handbook for those wishing to take on injustice, it's a guide for how to look at the world in a new way"
— BlogCritics
"Tolokonnikova fills her book with passion and political acumen…...With its stellar mix of personal experience and hard-won advice, Tolokonnikova's guide is sure to fuel social movements for years to come."
"A raucous fusion of memoir and action guide…...In her debut, Tolokonnikova writes with an uncompromising mixture of fervor and humor……A chaotic, irreverent testimonial ideal for frustrated progressives in this turbulent political moment."
— Kirkus Reviews
"ultimate how-to guide for budding activists looking to boost their radical prowess…...Whip-smart, playful, and unapologetic, Tolokonnikova's book is an inimitable guide to civil disobedience."
Publisher: HarperOne
Publication Date: October 9th, 2018
Political Science / Political Freedom
Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists
Social Science / Popular Culture
Kobo eBook (October 8th, 2018): $10.99
Compact Disc (October 9th, 2018): $49.99
MP3 CD (October 9th, 2018): $39.99

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Strategic Dialogues
On Geopolitics, Security and Strategy
China and the Pacific
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Non-State Actors
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Category Archives: China and the Pacific
The Quad and AUKUS-Compacts to Collar China
Posted on November 19, 2021 by strategicdialogues
Vice Admiral (retd) Vijay Shankar.
(Published in the author's column "The Strategist" in the IPCS web journal. May be accessed at http://www.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=5797)
Keywords: Pre-First World War Germany, China's new era of rejuvenation, strategic culture of China's leadership, Confucian ideology, realpolitik, South China Sea, predatory economics, Belt and Road Initiative, Great Wall, Long March, era of turbulence, AUKUS, Quad, National Defence in a New Era, Covid 19.
An historical analogy may be in order to fully understand the looming conflict between Chinese authoritarianism and the uneasy democracies of the world. In the run up to the First World War, Germany pursued a combination of militarism, overbearing diplomacy, nationalism and brinkmanship to achieve policy goals, despite the risk of war. Demanding a review of international order that would confer on it a dominant political position, in keeping with its self-perceived economic and military prevalence, Germany saw little issue in conflict being a natural corollary to its creating crises and then manoeuvring through them. In the event, it was the response to ambitious revisionism and disregard for established norms of international order that led to war.
An observer of contemporary geopolitics will not fail to note the similarity in circumstance of China's dazzling economic growth, "military muscularity" pivotal to its geopolitical vision, ambitions, nationalism and its realpolitik instincts. The critical assumption of China's leadership is that their new era of rejuvenation will progress per script through questionable economic deals and coercion. This assumption is flawed for as Michael Howard pointed out in his Lessons of History (pg39) "force is the midwife of (violent) historical processes." A clash is brewing, unintended as it may be; for nationalism and predatory economics is as much a source of conflict as counterforce and economic rivalry.
The strategic culture of Chinese leadership is driven by two dynamics — Confucian ideology and Realpolitik — the former is legacy of China's past, the latter draws strength from rigidity of a totalitarian dispensation and its propensity to 'power-politics'. This presents a dangerous cocktail. Confucian ideology treasures virtue and conservatism; it depends largely on the sagacity of the autocrat to speak for society. However, for an unrepresentative nationalistic state, Realpolitik places power and the threat of its use central to international relations. Beijing's grandiose territorial claims coupled with leadership's strategic culture provide both incentive and contrivance for conflict.
China's economic policies are predatory, a key reason is opacity of dealings, for the Communist Party is opposed to any inconvenient transparency that might compel standardising products and divulging processes. The Belt and Road Initiative, which was supposed to deliver billions of dollars in infrastructure financing to some countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, has now turned into a massive debt trap.
To interpret China's international and domestic behaviour one needs to look over the "Great Wall" and beyond the "Long March." The former, was conceived to hold back Northern raiders, yet its completion over 1800 years comes at a time when invaders rule within; while the "Long March" was a bloody retreat in a civil war that underscored great human loss and ruthless control. Both events were inward "racking" and do not provide advocacy for use of power in the strategic environment of today. No surprises, that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), readily resorts to strong-arming when it perceives an opening window of vulnerability or a closing window of opportunity in potential victims.
The Long March (Chinese posters.net)
China's geopolitical aims are not secret. Xi, wants to consolidate China's control over important lands and waterways that the "century of humiliation," ostensibly, wrested from its influence. These areas include Hong Kong, Taiwan, chunks of Indian Territory, and some 80 per cent of the East and South China Seas (SCS). Contradictions erupt when use of force is tempered by tenets of Confucian thought; so the Korean War ends in a caustic stalemate, the 1962 conflict with India meanders to an unsettled impasse, the purpose and outcome of the Vietnam war of 1979 is clouded, the frenetic creation of artificial islands for military bases in the South China Sea tramples on established international norms and the recent skirmishes in Ladakh remain a continuum of the impasse. We stand, perilously, on the cusp of an era of turbulence.
On cue, in response to China's aggressive manoeuvres; the recent announcement of the formation of a new trilateral alliance between Australia, UK and the US (AUKUS) and the continuing strategic security dialogue between Japan, Australia, India and the US (Quad) have made it amply clear that "countering China's assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific" is number one priority, and the two will do whatever it takes to succeed. Ironically, Beijing's recent White Paper titled "National Defence in a New Era" outlined its territorial ambitions in the South and East China Seas, Yellow Sea, Taiwan and Ladakh and warned regional powers of its willingness to use force and use it first if its ambitions are threatened.
The more palpable part of the 'AUKUS' is the transfer of 8 Nuclear-powered submarines (SSN); clearly, the SSNs will not be available to Australia for the next decade and a half, however they provides the basis for denial operations in these waters and gives access to a host of futuristic capabilities. AUKUS's technology-sharing mission is complemented by the Quad presenting a new security architecture that combines both military and economic prowess amongst nations that share a vision of a free and rule-based Indo-Pacific. The resolve to strategic confrontation against revisionism in the Indo-Pacific is thus emphasised. Balance of power adherents, with justification, consider a visible demonstration of collective power as the only way to dampen Beijing's aggressive expansionism.
That these initiatives have made China "edgy" is clear from their immediate declarations: "China will certainly punish Australia with no mercy" and Australian troops are most likely to be the first batch of soldiers to waste their lives in the SCS. President Xi Jinping avowed in July that those who get in the way of China's ascent will have their "heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel".
Nations have become less enthused by China's market and more worried about its disturbing intent. Fearing forced unification, Taiwan is tightening its ties to the U.S.; Japan, is engaged in its largest military build-up since the Cold War; India is readying strike forces along China's borders, developing strategies to occlude vital sea lanes in the Indian Ocean and has engaged partnerships that threaten China's vulnerabilities; Australia is opening up its northern coast to U.S. forces and is readying for acquisition of long-range missiles and SSNs. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are sending warships into the Indo-Pacific to assert their rights.
In the meantime China's dubious role in the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has left it beleaguered.
We began with a pre-First World War analogy of Germany. However, one may surmise that given the nuclear overhang, the rise of China with its burden of a 'century-of-humiliation' will demand a strategy tempered by tolerance and accommodation rather than principles of the past. But the other truth is, the fear of war, to authoritarian regimes such as China co-exists with belligerence and exalted nationalistic feelings that, while advancing concern of survival of dispensation, also boosts profitable involvement in the incessant preparedness for war. Herein lies the striking resemblance of China with pre-First World War Germany. And herein also lies the necessity to collar China through unified action that threatens regime survival by challenging its bellicosity in the Indo-Pacific.
Posted in China and the Pacific, Geopolitics and Strategic Impulses, Maritime Security | Tagged AUKUS, Belt and Road Initiative, Confucian ideology, era of turbulence, Great Wall, Long March, National Defence in a New Era, Pre-First World War Germany, predatory economics, Quad, realpolitik, South China Sea, strategic culture of China's leadership | 4 Replies
Rumpus in the South China Sea
Posted on September 10, 2021 by strategicdialogues
Vice Admiral (retd) Vijay Shankar
(Published in the October issue of DSA available on their site
https://www.dsalert.org/DSA-Editions/Oct_2021_Vice_Admiral_(Retd)_Vijay_Shankar_PVSM_AVSM.pdf)
Keywords and phrases: Paracels sea battle, Domino Theory, Saigon Military Mission, Pacification and development of Vietnam, Shanghai communique, China control of Paracels, century of humiliation.
The Battle for the Paracel Islands: Setting the precedence
In January of 1974 during America's war in Vietnam, an obscure naval battle was fought in the South China Sea involving an intense clash between the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and South Vietnamese navies near the disputed Paracel Islands. The short but fierce battle left China in control of seemingly unremarkable spits of land and surrounding waters. The incident merited little global attention, especially when compared with past titanic struggles at sea, such as those of the two world wars. Unsurprisingly, the battle remains an obscure, if not forgotten, episode. However in naval history it defined China's early steps to arrogate the South China Sea. It is, therefore, important that we examine this naval battle keeping in perspective the backdrop of the larger war being waged on the Indo-China Peninsula and the US geo-political moves to open-up the People's Republic of China (PRC).
In response to the stunning victory by North Vietnamese communist forces in June 1954, bringing to an end nearly a century of French colonial rule in Indochina, America, feared the strategic collapse of western influence against the surge of Communism in South East Asia. It contrived a foreign policy that came to be known as the "Domino Theory". Subsequent events however suggest that the concept was ill-advised and today stands discredited; the view was that the fall of Indochina to communism would lead rapidly to the collapse of other nations in Southeast Asia (including Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) and elsewhere (Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and even India). US President Eisenhower, in 1954 declared, "The possible consequences of the loss "are just incalculable to the free world."
American answer was the Saigon Military Mission, a covert operation to conduct psychological warfare and paramilitary activities in Vietnam to prop up the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam. It marks the beginning of the American war in Vietnam. The Geneva Accords of 1954 effectively divided Vietnam in two at the 17th parallel. By 1967 a wily programme for the 'pacification and development of Vietnam' was initiated that was primarily a US military coercive effort to compel security and stability of South Vietnam's rural population. US troops were surged to approximately 485,000. The casualties bore grim testimony to the utter failure of the scheme, by 1968 over 20,000 US troops had had been killed.
It wasn't till 27 January, 1973 that President Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending 'direct' U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It may be recalled that Nixon opened the doors to China in February 1972, during which he met Chairman Mao and signed the Shanghai Communiqué with Premier Zhou Enlai. The communiqué set the stage for improved Sino-US relations both economic and political. Normalization of relations and the accession of China into the global marketplace was the end purpose. Clearly there was no intention to initiate any action that might jeopardise Nixon's grand scheme.
Harking back to the Battle for the Paracel Islands. The archipelago lies in the South China Sea approximately equidistant from the coastlines of the PRC and Vietnam. With no indigenous population, ownership has been in dispute since the early 20th century. Between 1932 and 1956 the Islands exchanged hands contentiously between the French, Japanese, Republic of China (Taiwan) and South Vietnam. By 1956 France and Japan abdicated their claims which left China and South Vietnam with small garrisons on Yongxing and Shanu Islands. The Paracel Islands are located 300 kilometres south of Hainan Island, and 370 kilometres east of Da Nang. The archipelago is composed of coral islands, reefs, and banks divided into two island groups. To the northeast is the Amphitrite Group, in which Woody Island is the largest feature. To the southwest is the Crescent Group, consisting of Pattle , Money and Robert Islands on the western side and Drummond Duncan and Palm Islands on the eastern side. About eighty kilometers of water separate the Amphitrite and Crescent Groups (see Chart 1)
Chart 1 PARACEL ARCHIPELAGO (source'https://www.navytimes.com/news/yournavy/2019/03/14/)
On 16 January, 1974, two Chinese Kronshtadt-class submarine chasers and two minesweepers along with a force of maritime militia were ordered to protect fisherman operating off the Paracel Islands. It was also a part of a force build-up in the eastern part of the archipelago. Beijing had decided to solve the Paracel Islands territorial dispute by force if the opportunity presented itself. Saigon in the meantime despatched a Frigate with South Vietnamese Army officers and an American observer to the Paracels on a surveillance mission to investigate reported Chinese activities in the area (the role of the American officer on the frigate was never clear). They discovered two Chinese "armoured fishing trawlers" off Drummond Island in support of a detachment of troops who had occupied the island. Chinese soldiers were also observed on nearby Duncan Island, with a landing ship and two additional Kronstadt class submarine chasers in the vicinity. This was reported to Saigon who despatched two more frigates and one corvette to confront the Chinese ships in the area and evict their troops on the islands. By 18 January the Vietnamese force concentrated off the Islands. In the meantime the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) had also landed two battalions of marines supported by a large number of irregular militia.
The combined Vietnamese force of three frigates and one corvette vastly outgunned (5 inch and 3 inch guns) the PLAN force of two minesweepers, two Kronshtadt class submarine chasers (Soviet origin, main armament 85 mm and 37 mm guns) and the landing ship. In the run up to the battle, South Vietnamese troops attempting to establish a bridgehead on Duncan Island were beaten back by Chinese marines and irregulars.
On the morning of 19 January the Battle was joined when a gun duel broke out between the two forces. The lighter and faster Chinese flotilla manoeuvred close in to the South Vietnamese force; their agility permitted them to close the larger South Vietnamese warships to within their gun range. The Vietnamese could not bring their heavier guns to bear. All the while the Chinese maritime militia on board their armed and armoured trawlers were deployed close-in to ensure a very confused picture. Tactically, once range was closed to half-mile, the Chinese vessels' rapid-firing light weapons and speed gave them a decisive advantage. The PLAN had within 40 minutes bested the South Vietnamese fleet. By late evening 20 January, all of the Paracel Archipelago was under Chinese control.
China's Grand Strategy Unfolds
China employed a mix of conventional and irregular forces to meet its operational objectives. Such hybrid methods foreshadowed the kinds of combined maritime warfare China would consistently employ in its grand strategy to annex the South China Sea. Indeed, operations in 1974 in the Paracels represent an archetype that could be employed again in the future. The battle was the first step in China's effort to control and usurp the South China Sea as it territorial sea.
Using similar tactics, in 1988, China seized six reefs and atolls of the Spratly Islands after another skirmish with the Vietnamese at Johnson South Reef. In late 1994, they built structures on Philippines-claimed Mischief Reef, leaving a weak Manila no choice but to accept the fait accompli. In 2012, China compelled the Philippines to yield control of Scarborough Shoal after a standoff at sea over fishing rights in the area. Beginning in late 2013, China embarked on a massive land reclamation project in the Spratlys, building up artificial islands that added up to thousands of acres of land. Some of the man-made islands feature military-grade runways, deep-draft piers and facilities to accommodate warships.
China has laid claim to all the waters of the South China Sea based on a demarcation they call the 'Nine-Dash' line. In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that the origin of the entitlement is bereft of legitimacy and could not be used by Beijing to make historic claims to the South China Sea. The line, first inscribed on a Chinese map in 1947, has "no legal basis" for maritime claims, deemed the Court.
Chart 2. The Nine Dash Line
In brazen dismissal of the Tribunal's ruling, China persists in its sweeping claims of sovereignty over the sea, its resources and de-facto control over the trade plying across it amounting to US $5.3 trillion annually.
Satellite imagery has shown China's efforts to militarize the Woody Island while constructing artificial Islands and setting up military bases, rejecting competing claims of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Most of the world along with claimant countries demand the rights assured under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
In sum, China's strategy for managing its claims in the South China Sea has emphasized delaying settlement of disputes. And in time with swelling military capability, occupation of contested features, building artificial Islands and locating military bases for control of the waters within the nine-dash line. In the face of these aggressive moves the other claimant states are left in awe as they are handed down a grim reality.
To Untangle Beijing's Behaviour
China's century of Humiliation (1839-1949) coincided with the start of the First Opium War and ceding of Hong Kong to Britain. The conflict provided other colonial powers, a blueprint for usurping territories from the crumbling Qing dynasty. So, northern China was seized by the Czar, Formosa was taken by Japan; while Germany, France and Austria carved out coveted real estate through 'loaded treaties'.
The period remains etched in Chinese institutional memory of a rapacious international system over which it had little influence. It has today shaped China's geo-political thrust for controlling status in the very same system. More importantly, it provides a rallying point internally and a persistent reminder to its people of why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, Premier Xi Jinping's declaration of 2017 that "…the world is not peaceful" is turning out to be an "engineered" self-fulfilling prophecy. When put on a strategic template the delaying actions to resolve simmering discords effected only to exasperate, Janus faced policies that serve to deceive and subvert alliances, coercive manoeuvres, lease-for-debt economic deals and flouting of international norms bear a bizarre semblance to the words of Sun Tzu: 'The master conqueror frustrated his enemy's plans and broke up his alliances. He created cleavages…He gathered information, sowed dissension and nurtured subversion. The enemy was isolated, divided and demoralized; his will to resist broken." (Griffith, p 39).
Challenge of China
Of all the uncertainties, it is China, a stated revisionist autocratic power that will impact regional stability; particularly so, in the maritime domain. The planner must in the circumstance examine in some detail the challenge of China. Of significance is the shift in global balance to the Indo-Pacific intricately linked to the stunning growth of China as a contender for regional dominance. Its ascendancy is backed by military forces that are developed to the point where they expect to challenge any adversary that may attempt to deny its interests.
China's latest defence white paper of July 2019 describes "Taiwan, Tibet, and Turkistan as separatists that threaten national unity. While drumming the theme of "people's security" it persists with its re-education camps in Xinjiang. It hammers home the brutal repression of Muslim ethnic minorities, mainly Uighurs, and their mass incarceration. The paper warns of the dangers of territorial conflicts erupting in the South China Sea and hazards of strategic competition for resources and control of the seaways."
Paradox of China's Actions: A Conclusion-An Unintended War
The consequences of China enabling its Anti-Access and Area Denial strategy and enabling its Coast Guard Law (January 2021) are moves to establish proprietary control, sources of raw materials, domination of sea lines of communication euphemistically called the "maritime silk route" and working to realise the String of Pearls (currently a patchy network of Chinese military and commercial facilities along its maritime silk route). These manoeuvres in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Region evoke increasing anxieties and resistance by players in the same strategic settings. Debt traps that have been set by China to inveigle some of the hapless littorals of the Indian Ocean of their maritime facilities are symptomatic of a new form of colonial venture. The paradoxical effects of China's actions are to undermine its own strategic standing, hasten counter balancing alignments such as the QUAD and urge a global logic of cooperative politics over imperial strategies.
Through all this, China remains quite oblivious to the legality of their discordant Air Defence Identification Zone, the 9-Dash line delineating their claim over most of the South China Sea, China's Coast Guard Laws, contravention of the UNCLOS and breaching international law by constructing and militarising artificial islands. China appears to be challenging not just today's economic orthodoxy, but the world's political and security framework as well.
We are not in Sun Tzu times neither are strategies so opaque nor are Xi's people willing to tolerate an autocratic ruler indefinitely. Yet China would do well to heed Sun Tzu's sage words of avoiding a reckless path to an unintended war.
Posted in China and the Pacific, Geopolitics and Strategic Impulses, Maritime Security | 1 Reply
Origin of a New Cold War
Posted on July 17, 2021 by strategicdialogues
Published in the IPCS Web Journal in my column the Strategist. Available at http://wwAvailable atw.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=5778.
Keywords: Containment, defeat of free institutions anywhere is a defeat everywhere, NATO Summit June 2021, growing speculation, the New Cold War.
George. F. Keenan, an American Foreign Service officer, in 1947 formulated the policy of "containment." The continuity that this policy represented may be appreciated by its longevity; it remained at the foundation of the US strategy for fighting the Cold War (1947–1989) with the Soviet Union and the keystone of their foreign policy. "The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union," Kennan wrote, "must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies and protection of global industrial centres." To that end, he called for countering "Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world" through the "adroit and vigilant application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and manoeuvres of Soviet policy." Such a policy, Kennan predicted, would "promote tendencies which must eventually find their outlet in either the break-up or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power." He tailed off with the statement that "In the context of the present polarization of power, a defeat of free institutions anywhere is a defeat everywhere."
It is an awkward strategic irony that Keenan's words should find an improbable echo 84 years later, in 2021, at summit declarations of the G7 and NATO. With the difference that it is China's territorial ambition, cyber manipulation of global centres of industries, commerce and financial institutions, violation of human rights and disregard of established international norms that has become the object of antipathy. The NATO summit of June 2021 in its concluding declaration underscored that China's "stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order." China's repression of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and its "frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation" has piqued the international community. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders, earlier in their first summit also weighed in when they agreed to "meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China seas".
In summary China poses a 'fourfold threat' to the world; economic, ideological, geopolitically and an aggressive revisionism. China's subjugation of Uighurs, its crackdown in Hong Kong, territorial excesses in the South and East China Sea and Ladakh region have drawn condemnation from the larger majority of the world community. Its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has prompted concerns about Beijing's unscrupulous influence over some European and developing countries along the route. Seeking to create a counterweight of democratic values and nations in response to Beijing's growing economic, military and revisionist activities the G7, NATO and the Quad emphasised that they will "continue to respond to the deteriorating security environment by enhancing deterrence and defence posture."
Are we witnessing the genesis of another Cold War? The first Cold War was marked by actions taken to face down the Soviet Union and its Communist allies whenever and wherever they posed a perceived risk of gaining influence. In fact, Kennan advocated defending above all else the world's major centres of industrial power against Soviet expansion. The Cold War was characterised by three factors:
The threat of nuclear war and the ensuing arms race
Ideological quest for world domination
Victory through influence and proxy wars
Today, this would develop into vigorous opposition to any belligerent geopolitical action initiated by China. On the ground, China's every move is designed more to further its own rapacious designs than for any altruistic purpose. A master plan has been articulated in their July 2019 white paper on national defence titled "China's National Defence in the New Era." The paper offers insights into how Chinese leadership conceives a world order characterized by greater control over what it perceives to be a "community of common destiny (CCD)." The paper, significantly, re-emphasises China's intentions to revise the current global order to create a future more favourable for its interests. China makes a grand assumption that countries in the region are "increasingly aware of being members of the CCD" and then deduces that they are therefore in harmony with Beijing's ideological make-up. While the questionable nature of the 'grand assumption' throws up a flawed deduction, what comes next is disquieting. It is the illusory context of the document linking China's defence directly to the notion of a "CCD for humanity" that provides a dangerous strategic underpinning.
The Covid-19 virus, originating in Wuhan, set into motion a pandemic of a scale and scope whose economic impact on the world has beggared belief; the statistics speak for themselves, total deaths: 3.94 million, number of cases: 182.07 million. The strange fact is that China, where the virus originated, has been left largely untouched; its economy is showing growth of a nature that is implausible while the health of its population remains robust. The curtain of opacity that China has shrouded itself in as to origins of the virus has only reinforced the growing speculation that the virus was man-made and its release, deliberate.
The pandemic has provided a springboard for China to plunge into the act of creating the "New Era." This ambitious scheme comes unglued as control over civil society diminishes and the Chinese Communist Party loses appreciation of human nature that craves for what it does not have which, in the case, is democratic freedoms. Democracy in China is restricted to the local level in small cohesive communities. Leadership is chosen and ordained at this level to rise to the top echelons of authority with neither popular support nor with their feet on the ground. The flaws in China's political system are obvious. The media is heavily censored and the Internet manipulated and periodically blocked. Leaders are unimpeded by the rule of law. More disquieting is the despotic trend that Xi Jinping has set in motion, suggesting that the regime is increasingly worried about its legitimacy. Despite economic growth being at the heart of political stability, incidents such as the crackdown on Jack Ma's (the richest man in China, creator of Alibaba – China's largest tech company – and The Ant Group, the largest Financial technology company in the world) assets, which have been stripped, shorn, chopped and distributed amongst incompetents, have been making international headlines. Reasons for this embargo are inexplicable since Ma's enterprises had over the years contributed in good measure to China's growth. Other leading entrepreneurs today are on thin ice.
Through the ages, human progression has been inspired by increasing empowerment of individuals and communities rather than a collective enslavement to abstract causes. Resentment of years of humiliation, as China's leadership never fail to remind its people, can only lead to a society that is drawn to toxic authoritarianism. This has happened, and therefore our perplexity at civil society in China drawn to a 'New Era' must not come as a surprise. Uncomfortably, the era coincides with the start of a new cold war.
Posted in China and the Pacific, Geopolitics and Strategic Impulses, South Asia | 2 Replies
strategicdialogues


text:
Speech Transcript – Richard C. LaMagna, Oral Testimony regarding "The Anticounterfeiting Amendments of 2003"
Oral Testimony of
Richard C. LaMagna
Senior Manager, Worldwide Investigations
H.R. 3632,
The Anticounterfeiting Amendments of 2003
Before the
Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important and much-needed anti-counterfeiting legislation. My name is Richard LaMagna, and I am Senior Manager of Worldwide Investigations at Microsoft Corporation. I joined Microsoft in 1999 after a 28-year career as a Special Agent with the DEA and the FBI investigating international drug trafficking organizations.
Mr. Chairman, Microsoft supports and commends you for introducing H.R. 3632, the Anticounterfeiting Amendments Act of 2003, legislation that would prohibit an increasingly pervasive activity that directly facilitates counterfeit software sales. Microsoft views this legislation as the single most important step that Congress can take to fight software counterfeiting in this country.
Software counterfeiting is a particularly pernicious and widespread form of criminal piracy that defrauds American consumers and funds a wide array of organized criminal enterprises. As a founding member of the Business Software Alliance, Microsoft has, for many years, worked closely with BSA and law enforcement to halt the manufacture and sale of counterfeit software. These efforts have led to annual seizures of almost $2 billion in counterfeit Microsoft products.
Software counterfeiters go to great lengths to make pirated software look genuine, in an effort to deceive the consumer and maximize illicit profits. Here is an example of counterfeit Office 97 – a version of Microsoft's most popular product suite. Even the most sophisticated consumer would have great difficulty in distinguishing this counterfeit package from the genuine item.
Software counterfeiters use state-of-the-art technology to create counterfeit CD-ROMs and packaging that bears all of the hallmarks of the genuine product. For many years, Microsoft has worked to outpace counterfeiters by developing physical security components that help consumers and law enforcement agencies distinguish legitimate software from sophisticated counterfeits, much in the same way the US Government uses physical security features to authenticate its paper currency. For example, Microsofts certificate of authenticity incorporates several proprietary technologies, including special inks and micro-text.
Because these physical security components are increasingly difficult to reproduce, counterfeiters are now combining pirated CD-ROMs and packaging with genuine components obtained through theft and fraud. In the past few years, more than 540,000 certificates of authenticity, which we call COAs, with a market value of $50 million, have been stolen from replicator sites in the US and Europe. The stolen COAs are sold to counterfeiters through a variety of brokers and distribution channels (including the Internet).
Currently, federal law does not provide adequate remedies to prevent trafficking in genuine physical security components, even though there is no legitimate business purpose for this activity. The persons who traffic in COAs and other physical security components know fully well that the components have no intrinsic value or use other than to facilitate the sale of counterfeit software. Nevertheless, because these brokers are a few steps removed from the component thefts or the counterfeit sales, prosecutors find it impossible to take any legal action, even though the components will unquestionably fall into the hands of counterfeiters.
H.R. 3632 would amend Section 2318 of Title 18 to prohibit trafficking in genuine physical security components used by Microsoft and other copyright owners to verify that a copyrighted work is legitimate and not counterfeit. With this narrowly-tailored amendment to Section 2318, federal law enforcement and copyright owners will have the tools needed to prevent trafficking in genuine physical security components. Microsoft looks forward to working with the Chairman and the Members of this Subcommittee to obtain passage of this important anti-counterfeiting legislation.
It is imperative that our laws keep pace with developments in software counterfeiting, particularly given the involvement of international organized crime in the counterfeiting trade. Like drug traffickers, software counterfeiting operations consist of global networks of well-financed and sophisticated criminal groups, capable of producing and distributing billions of dollars worth of counterfeit software each year.
Federal and local law enforcement in California — with the help of Microsofts investigative team — seized over $100 million in counterfeit Microsoft software. The raid disrupted a major international counterfeiting operation financed by criminal groups in Asia.
The Anticounterfeiting Amendments will help combat the growing threat of international counterfeiting crimes by ensuring that U.S. laws address all aspects of counterfeiting activities. In closing, Microsoft strongly supports this important legislation and urges this Subcommittee to pursue its swift enactment.
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DRAKE NIGHT IS BACK at Baby's All Right!
If you're like us, you haven't stopped playing MORE LIFE since it dropped a couple weeks ago…you're slightly addicted to Drake at this point…you're calling your friends wastemen…you maybe have adopted a faux-British accent…basically, you're blem for real. We Feel you. We Got you.
Next Saturday, April 8th, we are back with another unforgettable Drake Night at Baby's All Right: an opening London-inspired set (of course), followed by More Chunes For Ya Headtop until the lights go up at 4am! DJ sets by QUIANA PARKS,YAMEZ, and DJ TOY.


to actually get in frame and in focus.
The nearing summer was obvious everywhere. Green is being phased out and replaced by yellow and brown. Thorns are springing up everywhere.
This tiny Graceful Prinia was singing at the top of its lungs for a while, hopping from one plant to another. I had to remain really quiet and avoid any sudden moves to have a chance of catching it in frame.


text:
Q: Different number of calls to onCreateViewHolder I'm using RecyclerView for a list of 100 items. 11 of them initially appear on the screen. Decided to log onCreateViewHolder. Here are the results:
override fun onCreateViewHolder(...): viewHolder {
    //...
    Log.d("TAG","log message")
    //...
}

Now when the App starts, a couple of logs appear, and when I start to scroll, 4-5 more messages.
But when I add a counter:
override fun onCreateViewHolder(...): viewHolder {
    //...
    counter++
    Log.d("TAG","log message $counter")
    //...
}

12 log messages appear at the start, and again 4-5 more by scrolling.
Tried both several times; same results every time. Why without a counter, I only get two logs?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ohio State coach Urban Meyer watches the team's spring game in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State has placed Meyer on paid administrative leave while it investigates claims that his wife knew about allegations of abuse against an assistant coach years before he was fired.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Urban Meyer investigation is costing Ohio State $500,000, but whether the superstar football coach keeps his job still comes down to whether the university wants to stick with him based on how he's already been tainted by the scandal.
But Meyer has already given his bosses plenty to consider – he says he knew of domestic violence allegations against Zach Smith before he brought Smith to coach wide receivers at Ohio State, and that he reported new accusations properly when they surfaced in 2015.
WHY FIRE MEYER?Meyer knew about a 2009 domestic incident in Gainesville, Florida, when Smith was a graduate assistant coach for Meyer's Florida team. A police report says that during an argument Zach Smith picked up a pregnant Courtney and threw her against a wall. Zach Smith was never charged.
Knowing that, Meyer allowed Smith to stay on staff at Florida and then brought Smith in at Ohio State. Meyer also knew about the 2015 abuse allegations , but Smith – the grandson of former Ohio State coach and Meyer mentor Earle Bruce – kept his job until Courtney Smith filed for a restraining order on July 20.
The Meyer investigation plays out at a time when the school itself – and college athletics at large – is under scrutiny around the handling of misconduct allegations.
Ohio State has a growing list of more than 100 former students and athletes who say they were groped and otherwise mistreated by Dr. Richard Strauss, a deceased athletic department doctor who worked at the university for nearly 20 years. There are questions about whether Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan knew about the abuse when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State during the same time.
WHY KEEP MEYER?Meyer said he followed "proper protocol and procedures" after finding out about the 2015 abuse allegations.
OTHER OPTIONS?Ohio State could suspend Meyer rather than fire him, if university leaders want to retain him while still delivering some punishment for keeping a coach around for so long despite accusations of domestic abuse.
A key detail for investigators will be whether the Title IX office or athletic director responded properly – if they were indeed informed. Citing the investigation, the university would not make those officials available for comment when contacted by The Associated Press.


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This DNA® Stage 3 Air Box Kit is designed as a High flow Air Box Kit for race, road and Off-Road use.
Designed to be used with or without the lower stock air box.


text:
<?php
namespace GrumPHP\Runner;

use GrumPHP\Task\Context\ContextInterface;
use GrumPHP\Task\TaskInterface;

/**
 * Class TaskResult
 *
 * @package GrumPHP\Runner
 */
interface TaskResultInterface
{
    /**
     * @return TaskInterface
     */
    public function getTask();

    /**
     * @return int
     */
    public function getResultCode();

    /**
     * @return bool
     */
    public function isPassed();

    /**
     * @return bool
     */
    public function isBlocking();

    /**
     * @return null|string
     */
    public function getMessage();

    /**
     * @return ContextInterface
     */
    public function getContext();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


President Trump's speech before a joint session of Congress last night was dominated by domestic issues, and he was careful to strike a conciliatory tone.
But foreign policy also made a few appearances – some subtle and others less so. Here's how we like to imagine leaders from the world's geopolitical hot spots received the president's speech.
Curious speech. You say you want to establish "a new standard of living for the 21st century" – but we're almost a fifth of the way through it. Talk about short-term thinking. And rebuilding "crumbling infrastructure?" I just approved$125 billion in new railway projects – top that.
Note to self: One of the few moments both Republicans and Democrats stood and applauded together on foreign policy was when Trump talked about getting tough on China. That doesn't bode well for relations with the US, no matter what Trump says about having "great respect" for me personally.
Congratulate Donald on his big speech.
Remind Donald that whatever he does with Maduro, Venezuela still owes Russia a lot of money, and we want our $17 billion back.
Donald says he will "outspend and out-innovate" us with his nuclear arsenal. Check with the Treasury whether we have enough cash to keep up.
Remember to thank Donald for not mentioning Ukraine with its elections next month.
I saw your speech, viejo. Eighty-two minutes? That's it? Are you tired, old man? Fidel once held the Naciones Unidas rapt for four-and-a-half hours. Our beloved Hugo Chavez spoke for eight hours on live television without a glass of water. This is a man's endurance, and I will outlast you, too. Talk all you want about the evils of socialism, Trump. Your puppet, Guaido, will never convince the army to abandon me. I will be dancing in the streets of Caracas when you are in jail.
The Taliban: Ok, let's get this straight. Trump wants to get America's 14,000 troops out of Afghanistan, because "great nations do not fight endless wars." Americans broadly support him – with 57 percent favoring a withdrawal within the next 5 years. Russia is backing a peace process that excludes the government in Kabul. And we currently control a majority of Afghanistan's territory. After two decades of war, are we interested in a "political settlement?" You bet we are.
"Haha… I know, I know, I really got off lucky Vladimir… he didn't even mention me… Didn't even! It's like, Jamal who? Yemen what? Anyway, you coming to my next comedy show? I think Jared will be there."
"Dear Donald, now that you have announced publicly the date and time of our next meeting, I am aflame with anticipation to see you again. Merely to be with you will draw open the earliest blossoms of spring in my wintry soul. Yours, Kimmy."
"Send this to the White House along with the others, and bring me the latest nuclear program updates. What? Pompeo is calling? Tell him I'm busy rearranging my paper clip collection and he'll have to wait."


text:
Q: R: import and converting CRSP data into a xts-object I have downloaded historical US stock prices from the CRSP database via the WRDS website.
I can import the .csv file but my approach to properly fit it into a xts-object is at least unhandy. With longer time periods and more data, after splitting the original data frame according to each ID, the list of data frames get up to  dozens of Gigabyte. Therefore, I am looking for a more efficient approach to covert the data frame, which consists of a simple list, to a ready to use xts-object.
Structure of data frame after import: (stocks are listed one below the other)
> head(dataf)
  ï..Names.Date PERMNO Price.adjusted
1    31/01/2014  10104          36.90
2    28/02/2014  10104          39.11
3    31/03/2014  10104          40.91

Desired format in the xts-object:
> dat[1:3,1:19]
         X10104 X10107 X11308 X11587 X11628 X11850 X12060 X12072 X12400
Jan 2014  36.90  37.84  37.82 267.18  18.35  92.16  25.13  17.74  53.53
Feb 2014  39.11  38.31  38.20 289.43  19.73  96.27  25.47  18.43  53.68
Mar 2014  40.91  40.99  38.66 306.14  20.20  97.68  25.89  18.25  52.54

My approach:
#read CSV into a data frame
dataf <- read.csv(file = "us-data14-16.csv", header = TRUE, sep = ";", fill = TRUE)

#data preprocessing, deletes objects with price = 0
dataf <- dataf[dataf[, 3] != 0, ]

#split list according to ticker in a list of data frames
dataf <- split(dataf, f= dataf[,2])

#get identifier
id <- names(dataf)

#convert data frames into xts objects
datax <- lapply(dataf, function(x) xts(x$Price.adjusted, as.yearmon(x[,1], "%d/%m/%Y")))

#set column name according to ticker (loop through every element in the list)
sapply(seq_along(datax), function(x) colnames(datax[[x]]) <<- id[x])

#merge list of xts objects in one xts object
dat <- do.call(merge, datax)

A: You need to use the reshape function with direction as wide.
df = data.frame(Names.Date= rep(seq(1:10), 10), PERMNO=sort(rep(seq(from= 101, to=110), 10)), Price.adjusted=rnorm(100))
reshape(df, idvar = "Names.Date", timevar = "PERMNO", direction = "wide")

A: You might find it easier to understand read.zoo and its split argument. The reshape function can be hard to remember how to use.
 First, some example data taken from one of the zoo vignettes.
dataf <- structure(list(V1 = c("13/10/2010", "13/10/2010", "13/10/2010",
"14/10/2010", "14/10/2010", "14/10/2010", "15/10/2010", "15/10/2010",
"15/10/2010"), V2 = c("A", "B", "C", "A", "B", "C", "A", "B", "C"),
 V3 = c(23L, 12L, 124L, 43L, 54L, 65L, 43L, NA, 65L)),
.Names = c("V1", "V2", "V3"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -9L))

Then use read.zoo to convert the data.frame to a zoo object.
z <- read.zoo(dataf, format = "%d/%m/%Y", split = 2)
z
#             A  B   C
# 2010-10-13 23 12 124
# 2010-10-14 43 54  65
# 2010-10-15 43 NA  65

You can call as.xts(z) if you want to convert z to an xts object.


Over the past few decades, unions have been in decline and governments throughout the advanced capital world have removed constraints on firms by deregulating labour law and collective regulation. Much scholarship and activist debate has focused on why this has been happening but few have studied the political and economic consequences of deunionization and what it means for working people and democracy. Jake Rosenfeld takes on this challenge in What Unions No Longer Do.
Rosenfeld argues that the American labour movement, once so central to politics and egalitarian public policies, is now fundamentally in decline. Unions that used to organize millions of workers – including African Americans, Hispanics, and immigrants – currently struggle to certify new workers. Unions that previously boosted the wages of union and non-union workers alike can, at best, hold the line for their dwindling members. Unions that in years past had a political voice that could not be ignored on issues of economic and social justice are now written off as special interest groups by public officials more concerned with the preferences of business and the rich.
What Unions No Longer Do demonstrates the costs of such developments: ever higher inequality, growing numbers of low-wage jobs, and a politics that continually benefits the rich and employers at the expense of the vast majority of working Americans. Given how the United States is often the political bellwether for Canada and Western Europe, these are important arguments that all social scientists should pay attention to.
In making these arguments, Rosenfeld adds substantially to recent literature that traces how and why government policy on redistribution and labour markets have been reformed to the advantage of the few. As scholars such as Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson, Joseph Stiglitz, and Theda Skocpol, among others, have shown, labour policies in the United States today are regularly undermined by the deliberate efforts of firms to convince policymakers to deregulate, avoid updating policy, or simply keep labour market issues off the agenda. Researchers in this vein explain these outcomes in terms of how the economic wealth of business and Wall Street has been translated into durable political resources and unprecedented access to policymakers that refocuses the energies of political parties and governments alike.
In contrast, Rosenfeld focuses in far greater depth on the many consequences of organized labour decline for American political economy. What is happening to unions, he argues, is fundamental to understanding recent patterns of wage [End Page 306] stagnation and job insecurity, as well as to how American democracy is fundamentally closing itself off from the voice of workers.
Combining in-depth statistical analysis with a sharp eye to the big historical changes over the past century, Rosenfeld shows, for example, how the growth of public sector unions and their growing role inside the labour movement have not resulted in better wages in other non-union sectors, nor has it had much of an impact in mobilizing voters to participate in progressive politics. In large part, this is because public sector unions are limited by the whims, budgetary constraints, and partisan composition of governments. But he also argues that it is because public sector workers and their organisations face innumerable difficulties in overcoming the fragmenting effects of race, education, and occupation, all of which limit the organizing and mobilizing potential of the public sector for a more encompassing labour movement.


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Due to the high interest in the pilot bird identification training held in May 2015 in Albania, in December 4-7th a second course on this topic was organized by PPNEA and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) / BirdLife Bulgaria. The event was held in Divjaka-Karavasta National Park and implemented in the framework of the MAVA project "Wetland management and Dalmatian Pelican Conservation in the Mediterranean Basin", in collaboration with the CEPF project "Land of Eagles and Castles". The course was focused at beginners in bird identification, and aiming to increase capacity of people dealing with eco-friendly tourism, rangers in nature reserves and national parks, from environmental NGOs, and students in these fields. The course was taught by a lecturer from the BSPB, it consisted of four days theory and field trips around the National Park, and was attended by 14 trainees (about twice more than in the previous training). Lectures were focused on wetland birds, many of which were demonstrated during the field trips. Techniques for bird monitoring, data collection and data storing were important component of the training as well. The two bird identification trainings held in 2015 are important steps towards the increased awareness in nature conservation, promotion of ornithological work and bird watching, and building capacity for biodiversity monitoring in the local stakeholders along the Adriatic coast in Albania.


What was once an industrial brownfield is now the city's crowning jewel.
Today, Vancouver became home to the greenest, most energy-efficient and sustainable neighbourhood in North America—and possibly the world—as the Olympic Village was certified LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The Olympic Village received high marks for its proximity to downtown, mixed-use design, affordable housing units, habitat restoration and a host of sustainable integrated design features, such as rainwater harvesting, sewer heat recovery, green roofs, use of recycled and low-VOC materials for building interiors as well as for maximizing the site's Western orientation.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a North America-only third-party sustainable building certification program recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health, including energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable site development, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
Heated and cooled by renewable energy, the Olympic Village development's most sustainable building is the Net-Zero Building, which will become affordable housing for seniors after the Games. It produces as much energy as is consumed through efficiencies in design as well as mechanisms for capturing and storing solar and waste heat.
The entire Olympic Village complex includes 1,100 residential units (including 730 market condos, 120 market rental apartments and 250 proposed affordable rental apartments), restaurants, a grocery store, community centre and daycare, plus 11 acres of redeveloped park and waterfront.
"Achieving LEED Platinum is a big feather in our cap, as we move towards our goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020," said the mayor, who sees the designation as one more reason for tooting Vancouver's green horn—something he'll continue to do throughout the Games while courting visiting business leaders in an attempt to build the city's cleantech industry through "green capital."
"Being the greenest development in the world right now should … demonstrate to the rest of the world that we mean business here when it comes to the green economy," Robertson said in a promotional video posted to the City of Vancouver's YouTube channel today following the announcement of the LEED Platinum certification.


text:
General elections were held in San Marino on 5 September 1943. After the former ruling party, the Sammarinese Fascist Party had been dissolved on 28 July, the "Lista Unica" was formed by a coalition of political leaders and non-partisans. It won all 60 seats.

However, with the formation of the Italian Social Republic by the Nazis, the Sammarinese Fascist Party was recreated, and the threatened newly elected Council appointed a fascist Congress of State with full powers, self suspending its own activity.

After the battle of San Marino in September 1944, the British Army occupied the republic until 31 December 1944, imposing the final disbandment of all fascist activities. A fresh election was consequently called.

Electoral system
Voters had to be citizens of San Marino, male and at least 24 years old.

Results

References

San Marino
General elections in San Marino
General
San Marino
Single-candidate elections

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia