The first video for "You're The Best Thing About Me" was a lyric video released the same week that the song premiered. On September 19, three weeks later, U2 announced on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts that an official video would be released on September 27. That video, which premiered at noon EST on September 27, features the four band members having fun around New York City, including walking around on the streets, riding on a sightseeing bus, and other activities around the city. A third video for the song, filmed in Amsterdam, has yet to appear.
The footage in New York was filmed on September 6, 2017. There were reports of U2 appearing all over New York that night. The band filmed scenes at the Blue Ruin, a bar in Hell's Kitchen, where Bono reportedly did a shot. Other footage was captured at Original Ray's Pizza, and in Times Square as U2 drove around on the upper level of a sightseeing bus. Additional clips include the band playing near the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in the background, riding around in a car with Edge in the driver's seat, and performing on the Top of the Rock Observation Deck.
The video clip is set to the single version of "You're the Best Thing About Me," but also includes some ambient street noise, sirens, and so on. There are also voice-overs at the start and at the end of the video. The clip opens with the sound of a woman's voice saying "huddled masses…yearning…her name, Mother of Exiles" as if coming through an untuned radio broadcast, while we see scenes of New York and the Statue of Liberty. At the end of the video, the same voice says "send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are lines from The New Colossus, a sonnet written by American poet Emma Lazarus. The poem is engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Shot earlier this month while the band were on tour and featuring U2 in performance, the video is a fitting backdrop for the "You're The Best Thing About Me" – Bono's love letter to his wife Ali – and serves as a visual tapestry of tribute to New York and a serenade to the city's iconic symbols of American compassion and liberty.


Squared Communications announces that Sarah Elliott joins the firm as Senior Vice President based in the Pacific Northwest. Elliott will manage the newly established office in Seattle, Washington. Elliott previously served as Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's communications director for eight years before joining the firm. Prior to her role in Montana, Elliott served on the press staff of then Denver Mayor and now Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.
"Sarah will lead SQComms' exponential growth and our strategic communications capacity, bolstering our U.S. West Coast operations and anchoring our Seattle office," said Michael Meehan, president and CEO of SQComms.
In the fall of 2012, SQComms joined forces with London based Luther Pendragon to offer our clients strategic services on both sides of the Atlantic. The Seattle office is our second West Coast office in addition to VennSquared's Silicon Valley office in Menlo Park, California.
SQComms is a top boutique strategic communications and political consulting firm based in Washington, DC with offices in Silicon Valley, CA and Seattle, WA as well as a strategic partnership in London. Our clients have included dozens of Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, foundations and issue coalitions. We have worked with dozens of candidates for office and elected officials at the federal, state and local level.


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Eduardo de Zulueta y Dato (París, 4 de diciembre, 1923 - Madrid, 28 de julio de 2020) fue un diplomático español.

Biografía
Hijo del diplomático Ernesto de Zulueta e Isasi  y de María de la Concepción Dato y Barrenechea, y nieto del político Eduardo Dato.

Licenciado en Derecho y diplomático. Fue Embajador de España en Argelia y Luxemburgo, Embajador Observador Permanente de España ante la Organización de los Estados Americanos en Washington, D.C., Director General de Asuntos Eclesiásticos del Ministerio de Justicia, Jefe de Protocolo de la Exposición Universal de Sevilla 1992, Director de Asuntos Internacionales del Instituto Cervantes.

Matrimonio y descendencia
Eduardo se casó con Renata Maria Theresia Alice Elisabeth Princesa de Altenburg (Castillo de Saybusch, Żywiec, 13 de abril de 1931), hija del archiduque Karl Albrecht de Austria-Teschen y su esposa Alice Elisabeth Ankarcrona. El enlace tuvo lugar en Estocolmo el 26 de junio de 1957. Tuvieron cuatro  hijos: Eduardo de Zulueta y Habsburgo-Lorena (Nueva York, 19 de octubre de 1958), Ernesto María Jaime Antonio de Zulueta y Habsburgo-Lorena (Nueva York, 7 de julio de 1961); Isabel de Zulueta y Habsburgo-Lorena (Madrid, 7 de marzo de 1965), y Jaime de Zulueta y Habsburgo-Lorena (Roma, 18 de junio de 1970 - Luxemburgo, 15 de febrero de 1988).

Promotor de la libertad religiosa
Eduardo de Zulueta, estrecho colaborador del embajador Antonio Garrigues Díaz-Cañabate en la embajada española ante la Santa Sede (1964-1972). En esa sede diplomática se redactaron los primeros borradores de los textos que sustituyeron el Concordato entre el Estado español y la Santa Sede de 1953. Posteriormente, al ser nombrado Garrigues Díaz-Cañabate ministro de Justicia en 1975, Zulueta estuvo al frente de la Dirección General de Asuntos Religiosos hasta abril de 1979. Desde allí se sentaron las bases del nuevo modelo de relaciones entre el Estado español y la Iglesia Católica. Se elaboró la ley de libertad religiosa, en julio de 1980.
Tras la promulgación de la nueva Constitución, Zulueta participó en las negociaciones que culminaron con la firma del Acuerdo entre la Santa Sede y España, realizado en Roma por Marcelino Oreja y el cardenal Jean-Marie Villot, el 3 de enero de 1979.

Premios y distinciones
 Gran Cruz de la Orden de San Raimundo de Peñafort
 Orden de San Silvestre de la Santa Sede
 Comandante de la Orden del Mérito Civil de España
 Comandante de la Orden de Isabel La Católica
 Caballero de la Orden de Carlos III

Referencias

Nacidos en París
Embajadores de España en Argelia
Embajadores de España en Luxemburgo
Embajadores de España ante la Organización de Estados Americanos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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How The Government Supports Tech Startups
All Tech News > Workspace > How The Government Supports Tech Startups
Emma Cartwright and Douglas Badder, December 6, 2013, 5:01 pm
Lawyers Emma Cartwright and Douglas Badder give a thumbs-up to the Government's support for startups
Technology is one of the few sectors to have been mostly immune to recession. The UK government has pledged its support by allocating significant resources, expertise and investment into the technology sector. It has also introduced favourable legislative changes and tax cuts to encourage business start-ups.
These efforts have not been in vain. The UK has become a major technology hub, with many US companies choosing to base their European headquarters here. The UK is increasingly known for expertise in the internet and app industries, where new business creation has taken off. Some well-known successes have included Last.fm (acquired by CBS), Tweetdeck (acquired by Twitter) and Mind Candy (behind Moshi Monsters).
London – Europe's Tech Capital
London, now considered the digital capital of Europe, has been key to the UK's success. A staggering 15,720 new businesses were set up between March 2012 and March 2013 in the Tech City/Silicon Roundabout area. London provides technology innovators, such as accelerator space Level 39, with direct access to hundreds of well-connected local mentors and Europe's largest venture capitalist community. Further advantages include competitive property costs, international transport links, and close proximity to advertising resources, media clusters and some of the world's leading technology universities.
In a drive to encourage innovation, millions of pounds in funding are available for UK technology and communications companies. For example, the Technology Strategy Board can allocate up to £375,000 through its SMART award to small and medium enterprises seeking to engage in R&D projects, and the Regional Growth Fund uses private sector investment to support projects to create economic growth and sustainable employment. The new 'Future Fifty' government programme works with selected high-growth companies to match them with publicly funded schemes applicable to their stage of growth.
It is relatively straightforward and very cost effective to incorporate a company in the UK. In addition, the government has established numerous tax incentives which provide invaluable benefits for start-up businesses in the technological sector.
Any company undertaking a project to bring about an advance in science or technology can reduce its corporation tax by claiming an R&D tax credit. Companies with fewer than 500 employees and an annual turnover of less than €100 million can claim relief equivalent to 225 per cent of qualifying expenditure, which includes labour, materials, software, utilities and, in some circumstances, capital expenditure. Large businesses can claim relief of 130 per cent or an above-the-line credit worth 10 per cent of eligible costs.
Another initiative, the Patent Box, allows companies to apply a 10 per cent rate of corporation tax to all profits attributable to qualifying patents, whether paid separately as royalties or embedded in the sale price of products. This scheme aims to provide a further incentive for companies to exploit new ideas whilst compensating for the cost of the patent process itself. HMRC predicts the Patent Box will provide £1.1 billion in tax relief by 2019.
The UK immigration system offers several well-defined immigration routes to allow investors and entrepreneurs to establish a presence in the UK. Some categories are more difficult than others due to stringent financial requirements and, in some instances, English language requirements. Getting upfront advice on the best route for working in the UK is therefore essential. Whilst other legal areas in the UK give a positive perception of being 'open for business,' this can be a little more challenging from an immigration perspective for start-ups with great products and ideas but no cash.
There is a constant drive by the UK to develop more options for start-ups, particularly by the Mayor of London who recently proposed a "London visa" targeted at talented tech experts and fashion designers, giving them an "easier" route to obtain immigration permission to work in London. The Mayor also announced on 30 October 2013 that a £100 million fund would be created to encourage Islamic technology entrepreneurs to set up business in the UK. This would include access to cost-efficient legal advice and assistance with visa and residence applications.
It is clear that the UK government is committed to attracting business into the UK, and has the technological industry firmly at the forefront of those incentives. The recently implemented changes to the UK tax and immigration regimes, together with the existing strong business environment and technological expertise that the UK tech industry can offer, make a compelling proposition for technology businesses thinking of locating their activities in the UK.
Emma Cartwright (associate) and Douglas Badder (trainee solicitor) work at law firm Faegre Baker Daniels. Frankie Cooke also contributed to this article.
Heartbleed: Act Quickly But Don't Panic
Lord Younger: Intellectual Property Enforcement Will Get Tougher
Snowden's Claims Of NSA Phone Recording Stretch Credibility

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Well, I think its amazing. I was searching for a specific qoute in Mere and I found a website that surprised me (I guess I had an expectation).
During C. S. Lewis week (which is Thanksgiving week in the USA, so, presumably, we in the USA have more time for the celebration), so, it would be good to see a film. Thus, I reccomend the film Shadowlands. It is about the later life of Lewis when he meets Joy and she turns his life around. The direction is great, the cast is amazing, a great deal of it was shot in Oxford where it takes place, and this film gives a pretty accurate picture of his life as a fellow at Magdalen College… click here for the trailer.
I thought that on day two I would think about the writing of Lewis (nickname Jack) that I have found helpful. The first one that comes to mind is the book I talk through with my students every year – Mere Christianity. This is not one but actually four books in one. This had its origin in radio talks during WW2 which were transcribed and edited and then in 1952(?) combined into one volume. I know college courses which use it for teach logical argument (presumably the five chapters of book one) but I find that the practical section of book three is most thought provoking. Within book four one finds theological musings. Two specific lessons that I can quickly offer from this book are "we need more reminding than teaching" and "pride is the great sin." Probably one of the most famous things from Mere is the "Liar, Lunatic, Lord" theory.
The Chronicles of Narnia are great to read. I read them through a couple of summers ago and found that they were amazingly full of spiritual lessons thorugh this rich story telling. Yes, they are great for kids, but man do they read chock full of theological musings.
The Weight of Glory is a sermon transcribed and turned into essay which then becomes a title for a group of essays and sermons. This is 'thicker' reading than what I have mentioned above. Once this small volume has been consumed, the next step up is God in the Dock which is even 'thicker' both in size and in depth of writing.
The last book I would mention (this is not meant to be exhaustive) is Till We Have Faces which is an interesting retelling of a Greek myth.
Last year I read the Collected Letters (3 thick volumes) which do as advertised, give a window into the soul. But this is for those who wish to invest time into a more serious understanding of the heart amd mind of Jack.
So that is what I think are some of the more (though I would never presume to claim that I know better than others, these are just my entries in line with C S Lewis week) helpful writings of C.S.Lewis.
Happy C. S. Lewis week!
Forty-five years ago today, C. S. Lewis died at the age of 64. 110 years ago next Saturday he was born. So, my posts in the next week will be about C.S.Lewis. If one needs details of his life because you don't feel you know enough about him, I have, over on my teaching website a couple of accurate collections of information, click here for that. Herein, I wish to think about why he is so important via the consideration of his impact on my own thinking as a follower of Jesus.
Because Lewis' journey was from adolescent (I refer to his age) atheism. Lewis moved from a pretty pronounced atheism (as his letters of that era clearly demonstrate) into a more agnostic approach. Then through the influence of friends into a theism and then into a full faith in Jesus. This resonates with me as I rarely thought about God as an adolescent, only to reject the very few attempts at including me in church, but as a young adult, I warmed to it and was fascinated by the religions I saw during my four years in Asia while in the Air Force. I enjoyed visiting all kinds of temples and wondered at them in my early twenties. And similarly, as it was his friends who pointed him to Jesus, I made a friend who pointed me to Jesus. As I have read Lewis, it seems that the Gospel just made sense to him and he awoke to it. My own experience was like that, I reasoned through the Gospel being challenged by my friend Dave with the juxtaposition of life offered in Col. 3. I resonate with Lewis, because I see in his life a somewhat similar path of awakening to the reality of Jesus. As his spirituality developed, Lewis sought the higher church experience, he was a frequent confessor – for a good while seeking the regular spiritual direction of his pastor and he sought the solace found in the communion and chapel nearly every morning. Could one say he had mystical tendencies? Looking at the reasoning and logic of Mere Christianity, one might say no, but when one realizes that his heart came through his fiction, the space trilogy and the Chronicles, I would say that the "baptized imagination" that he talked about had some clearly mystical tenants. This resonates with me as well, a baptized imagination with tendencies toward the mystical in the worship of Jesus… in both head and heart.
I was sitting this morning in the computer lab at school while students typed papers… I had finished all of my urgent stuff and was contemplating the header pic (above – the Duna river (how do you get Danube from Duna?) and the lights of Budapest at sundown). I was thinking about the city, its people, my visits, the people I have taken around this amazing place. I gradually looked over the places on the pic from "my kingdom" up to Buda Castle, down to Citadella, across the chain bridge and then to Parliament, when I got to Parliament, somehow I was reminded of the memorial to the Holocaust there on the bank of the Duna… I searched and found the post from the only time I have visited this memorial… I think that, looking back, it is among my most poignant memories from kingdom travelin' click here to see it… This, I think, is a fitting 700th post, looking back over the memories, thinking about the people, knowing that He has never given up on any of us, knowing that His heart breaks over the injustice that exists even in such an amazingly beautiful place.


The Brutale 1090RR is destined to go to a new home as well. In fact, it will be sharing it with the ZX6R. The new owner is quite an MV fan, with a minty F4 residing in his living room and used quite sparingly. The Brutale fits his daily ridging needs much better so a deal was struck. Both of the bikes will be picked up by a shipper in very near future.
Not that anyone really cares but I wanted to share my thoughts as to why I let the Brutale and replaced it with a Streetfighter. One of the biggest problems hindering the well being of MV in the US (and I suspect not only in the US) is the lack of proper after sales support. Its difficult to source MV parts from the franchised dealer(s) in the US. The in-tank fuel line was going to take a 3 months wait (!). To get a dealer to perform a 7500 mile service, I had to a) give the dealer deposit to get the service parts (!!! - something that any factory dealer is really required to stock) and b) wait about a month for the said parts to arrive.
This made me really wonder if something more serious would break down, how long would the Brutale sit out on the sidelines waiting for the parts to arrive? Ducati on the other hand, has the best dealership network out of any Italian bike manufacturer in the US, parts are 2-5 days away.
I have to admit that the selling dealer also had a Brutale 1090RR America in stock so I had a chance to compare the STreetfighter and the Brutie side by side. No doubt, the Brutale is a more beautiful bike but the Streetfighter is a no-nonsense machine. The 1090 RR has better street manner, with SF having a much quicker steering.
My fears of the the weak battery on the Streetfigher were confirmed. While the SFS sat in the garage, the Dieci received plenty of exercise. With 2 of bikes gone, the Bimota and Ducati enjoyed all the freed up space.
Well, I couldn't really leave well enough alone. The extra days off for the holidays and the pissy weather here left me with ample time to scour the internet and potentially get myself into more trouble. In this case, my undoing was coming across an ad for an Aprilia RSV R Bol d'Oro. On a whim, I shot an offer to the seller and after few days of deliberations the offer was accepted.
With this latest addition to the stable, it appears that I am firmly rooted in the Italian bike camp. I still miss the Boxer Cup Replika but a BMW will have to wait... I am looking at another Italian steed as I am writing this. When is this madness going to end?
You can never have enough Italian exotica in a garage.
As I saw recently the ideal number of bikes in your garage is N + 1. N being the current number of bikes in your garage !!
Winter seems to be the time to snap a bargain ,Any pictures ???


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Q: failed copy jar file from inside running jar application I try to copy jar file from within running jar, it was okay running inside eclipse IDE, but NOT when running jar application outside. Here part of the codes :
AWdir = new File("C:\\Windows\\Temp\\aw\\");
    AWdir.mkdir();
    if(AWdir!=null && !AWdir.isDirectory()){
        MessageDialog.openError(getShell(), "Error create directry", "DIR:"+AWdir);
    }
    String resource = "generate.jar";
    URL res = MainWindow.this.getClass().getResource(resource);
    fileJar = new File(res.getFile());
    JarFile jarFile=new JarFile(fileJar);
    String fileName = jarFile.getName();
    String fileNameLastPart = fileName.substring(fileName.lastIndexOf(File.separator));
    File destFile = new File(AWdir, fileNameLastPart);

    JarOutputStream jos = new JarOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(destFile));
    Enumeration<JarEntry> entries = jarFile.entries();

    while (entries.hasMoreElements()) {
        JarEntry entry = entries.nextElement();
        InputStream is = jarFile.getInputStream(entry);
        //jos.putNextEntry(entry);
        //create a new entry to avoid ZipException: invalid entry compressed size
        jos.putNextEntry(new JarEntry(entry.getName()));
        byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
        int bytesRead = 0;
        while ((bytesRead = is.read(buffer)) != -1) {
            jos.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
        is.close();
        jos.flush();
        jos.closeEntry();
    }
    jos.close();
    destFile.createNewFile();

please help and thank you for recommendation to resolve the above problem

A: it is solved using simple code like :
AWdir = new File("C:\\Windows\\Temp\\aw\\");
    AWdir.mkdir();
    if(AWdir!=null && !AWdir.isDirectory()){
        MessageDialog.openError(getShell(), "Error create directry", "DIR:"+AWdir);
    }
    String resource = "generate.jar";
    URL res = MainWindow.this.getClass().getResource(resource);
//replace this line
    //fileJar = new File(res.getFile());
// become here
    fileJar = new File(AWdir.getAbsolutePath()+"\\"+"generate.jar");
//finally write down this
    FileUtils.copyURLToFile(res, fileJar);

i got clue from  How to copy file inside jar to outside the jar?
Thanks a lot.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you are looking for a peel or an exfoliator that manually and chemically peels off dead skin cells the easiest way, then Neogen's new innovation in peeling is your best choice! This is a woman's lazy way of exfoliating these days! This huge tub contains 30 pcs. of single pads infused in a wine ferment called Resveratrol. Through this powerful AHA that penetrates deep into your pores, AND the Triple Layer Pad Technology of Neogen that scapes off oil, dirt and dead skin cells, your pores are uncloged and your complexion clearer and smoother!
Gentle to skin which can be used twice a week or daily or according to your skin needs.
After cleansing face, fish one pad and insert your finger in the slit provided. Using the rough side of the pad, massage face using a circular motion against the grains of your skin (from outside to inside or from bottom to top of face/neck). Once done, flip the pad and use the smoother side to finally swipe away remaining dirt or unwanted debris and oils. Rinse face with water. Follow with your toner, essence, serum, and moisturizer.
Use twice or as often as your skin needs it.


I don't have any envy for those of you who didn't make it out to Leah and Andrew's combined birthday party at Santa Monica's "Gas Lite," that bastion of restrained civility and polite indulgences. The birthday boy was heard to sing "Ring of Fire" in between slices of amazing chocolate cake, and several other wine club members who had signed up to sing but never got called wound up belting out their selections while annoying regulars performed "Love Shack" for the ninth time that night. Next time you get an invite to a non-wine related event on the wine listserv, it's imperative that you go.
We'll be meeting at Andrew's new place in Hollywood! Find yourself a delicious bottle of Oregonian Pinot Noir (or a no-wine donation), buddy up if necessary, go the extra mile and get tasting notes…. and we will see you in Boys Town (wtf?) tomorrow night at 9pm.


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This trolleybus is going East
Archive Page 2
Building bridges, burning bridges
Published November 27, 2018	Crimea , war Leave a Comment
Tags: Crimea, Kerch, Kerch bridge, Russia, Ukraine
I was in Kerch this summer, in the east of Crimea. That was before the college shooting; before Ukrainian ships were fired on and arrested in the Kerch straits, triggering (more) talk of (more) war and imposition of martial law in half of Ukraine. The biggest news in town then was the Kerch bridge, built by Russia across the Kerch straits in a 200 billion rouble Fuck You to international law, and a scandal about the disappearance of a chunk of budget money that had been allocated to rebuild the derelict steps up Mithridates hill.
Kerch bridge fridge magnets for sale on Mithridates hill
I met two men, let's call them Tolya and Ivan, who had worked on building the bridge, and earned themselves very nice wages thankyou. Tolya was absolutely opposed to Russian annexation; Ivan supported it.
Tolya's world, and world view, had fallen apart in 2014. He couldn't understand what was happening, how was it possible that Russia just came and took Crimea? What happened to justice, to fairness?
He had considered joining the Ukrainian army. He had considered emigrating, and even tried it for several months before concluding that life as a second class citizen in Europe was no solution.
grafitti on Mithridates hill
In Tolya I could see bewilderment and an almost self-mocking despair – it had been nearly five years already since annexation; it's hard to keep up the principles, the pure overwhelming emotions, over all that time. He mentioned the soldiers and tanks in the streets in 2014, coming back to them again and again in our conversations. They had clearly been like a hole torn in his entire view of the world – the possibility that war might come into his life, literally, here in Kerch where he'd had a successful business providing fun activities for tourists.
He talked a lot about his grandfather, an army man who had been arrested for 'anti-soviet activity' (for complaining about lack of rations and arms) and during world war 2 was put in charge of a unit of convicts – cannon fodder in the most literal sense.
And Tolya talked about the Kerch bridge. How well it was built (he had seen the process close up), its spectacular dimensions, what it had brought to isolated Kerch. "A bridge is always a good thing, isn't it?" he said. "A bridge joins things together, rather than separating them. It connects people, trade, ideas."
Tourists on Mithridates hill taking photos with a Kerch bridge background
Later Ivan took me out on a boat to see the bridge close up. Unlike Tolya, Ivan did not strike me as an introspective or romantic person. Everything in Russian Crimea was fantastic, including the bridge whose vital statistics he knew off by heart. Many people in Kerch mentioned the economic disaster that was the near-closure of the Kerch shipyard since 2014 when international shipping stopped; Vanya said cheerfully that it would soon be reopened and extended as a 'strategic object' – a military shipyard building warships.
In his late twenties, he wanted to be a commercial ship's captain, travelling the world. I asked if he thought his Russian Crimean passport (not recognised by many countries issuing visas) might be a problem; he didn't understand what I was talking about.
He was one of the few Crimeans I met who apparently had no doubts at all about Russian annexation being a good thing. A practical, active young man who did not remember the Soviet Union, his life ahead of him. I asked him what concrete benefits Russian rule had brought him. I thought at the very least he'd mention the high wages he'd earned building that bridge that connects, that divides.
He didn't. He said, "Peace. It's important to be confident that behind you stands a great power that is ready to fight for you."
Love and remembrance
Published November 12, 2018	Ukraine , war Leave a Comment
Tags: east Ukraine war, missing people, prisoner exchange
"We all love Vanya," says Vika, smiling across the table at the young man opposite. "All the women love to have him round for dinner. He's our hope."
Vanya seems nice enough, fair and twitchy, with thin skin stretched tight over his skull. Probably no more or less lovable than a thousand other young men who got caught up in the war between the government and Russian-backed 'republics' in east Ukraine. Vika and all the women love him not for his blue eyes and scattershot attention, for what he did or didn't do in the war, for the prejudices and inherited responses and experiences and fantasies that make up his personality. They love him as we'd probably all want to be loved: simply because he's alive.
No, not quite that. Because he was lost, and is found. Because he came back from the dead.
"Our Vanya's unique," Vika told me, when she suggested I meet him.
After 8 May 2016 when he was taken off a bus at a checkpoint of the unrecognised 'DNR' in east Ukraine, Vanya was one of the war's many missing.
The 'DNR' security services said he was dead, when they put a gun muzzle to Vanya's head. They called his mother and told her that. Then they stopped calling.
The Ukrainian security services told his mother to stop looking for him, or hoping for him to come home, because he was dead.
There is nothing unique in this story. Vanya's mother didn't believe it and kept hoping, and in that she was not unique either, she was the same as Vika, whose brother went missing at a checkpoint in 2014; as Yadviga and Svetlana, whose sons vanished at the battle of Ilovaisk; as Lilya whose son went missing in Debaltsevo in January 2015.
DNA matches, photographs of bodies, gunshots heard over a telephone connection – none of it is enough to make these women give up hope. Not when there are psychics to tell them their loved ones are alive, and social media messages with photos showing them alive. Not when there are conflicting lists of dead and missing and prisoners. Not when the DNA samples get mixed up, the body parts, the names; when police dump identifying clothing and belongings from the war dead in fields. Not when there are basements and building sites and brick factories and illegal coal mines where hostages and slave labourers could be imprisoned for years. Not when there is Vanya.
In early 2017 the Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko – captured in east Ukraine, sentenced in Russia then freed in an exchange – crossed the frontline to visit a 'DNR' prison. She shouted "Slava Ukraini!" (Glory to Ukraine) in a corridor. From a cell someone shouted back "Heroim Slava!" (Glory to the heroes).
It was like a magic password back to the land of the living.
"I'd written a letter to the 'DNR' security services, asking them to shoot me," Vanya says, matter-of-factly. He'd been in so many different basements and cells by then. "I wasn't right in the head any more. I couldn't see any way out. I never got any parcels. All the others there got humanitarian aid parcels, except me. I never got any because I wasn't there."
And then, suddenly, he shouted two words and he was there. Savchenko published his name. He was added to the Ukrainian official list of prisoners held by the other side. In December last year he was exchanged for 'DNR' prisoners held by Ukraine, and came home to his mother.
There are many more details to Vanya's story. Not all of them make sense. I could do the fact-checking, as much as is possible in Ukraine's murky and brutal war where everyone lies about everything. But this is a story about love.
Vika wanted me to meet Vanya because he was found after being missing, alive after being dead – and that means they all can be found alive. Vika's brother Sergey, Sveta's son Maxim, Yadviga's Andrey, Lilya's Sasha. All the sons, all the brothers, the loved ones.
"Our Vanya's unique," said Vika. He tells the women he isn't unique, there could be many more like him. He heard them, in neighbouring cells and dark basement rooms. Love never gives up, and neither does the desire to nurture hope.
Waiting and war memorials. Kyiv, 2015
Ukraine jumps the shark
Published June 1, 2018	journalism , media , Russia , Ukraine Leave a Comment
Tags: Arkady Babchenko, Crimea, east Ukraine war
On the two days Arkady Babchenko was killed and then came back to life to announce his death was faked by Ukrainian security services (SBU) and police, there was an international forum on disinformation in Kyiv. Never let it be said the SBU lacks a sense of humour.
I described to some conference participants how it felt in 2014 in Crimea during annexation and in Donetsk when the war started, surrounded by disinformation. Absolutely everybody lied about absolutely everything, from corpses poisoning the water supply to the presence of Russian forces. The lies made no internal sense, let alone tallied with what people were actually seeing and hearing. It was, literally, like drowning in bullshit. There were no facts, no objectivity, no two sides, not when everybody was lying about everything. The final question for me, and one I still haven't been able to answer, is how much people knew, and on what level they knew (or know) that they were lying to themselves. How much they knew they were being fooled; how much they were fooling themselves.
And here we are, 2018, fools drowning in bullshit.
If we're being honest (an out-of-date commodity these days) the bewilderment and moralistic outcry over Babchenko's fake death is not quite so much because it's another lie, but because we were made to look stupid. No one likes to look stupid, and particularly people like journalists and spokespeople and politicians whose ego and livelihood depend on being taken seriously. I am sure MIA advisor Anton Herashchenko and SBU head Vasyl Hrytsak massively enjoyed making fools of the press in and on Ukraine, which, if we are being honest, can be insufferably self-important and self-righteous. I'm sure the SBU loved making fools of reporters who are always going on about how corrupt and useless the SBU are, to the extent of carrying out their own investigation into the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet in Kyiv two years ago. I'm sure they loved poking with a bullshit stick the CPJ and RSF who've come close to suggesting, on no actual hard evidence, that the Ukrainian state may be involved in Sheremet's killing.
But Sheremet is dead, and no one is going to bring him back to life, and two years on the police and security services have named no suspects and made no arrests. A murder happened and was never solved. And now we have a murder that didn't happen, so that it could be solved. We have an incompetent – or worse – SBU that lets murder happen and never catches culprits, and a SBU so damn clever that it fakes murder in order to catch culprits. We have accusations of Russian involvement in murder that is never proved, and we have (allegedly) proof of Russian involvement in a murder that didn't happen.
My head hurts.
Those people justifying the Babchenko fake by citing other incidents of faked deaths of police officers to catch local criminals are being disingenuous. Local police officers or officials and criminals do not provoke a public statement from the prime minister blaming a neighbouring state, and from ambassadors and politicians around the world engaged in a major geopolitical conflict. The SBU didn't just trick some pesky journalists with the laudable aim of saving lives. The stakes are so high: MH17. The war in east Ukraine. Crimea. Syria gas attacks. The Skripals. Literally, thousands of dead and injured, all drowned in lies.
If we're being honest, none of us were objective over Babchenko's killing when we thought he was dead. In retrospect, there were a number of peculiar anomalies. But if we (I) thought about them at all, we put them down to Ukraine's frequently unprofessional and crass way of doing things (Herashchenko publishing that photo on facebook, anyone?) We believed it, because it was so very, very likely to be true, it confirmed every worst scenario we have already lived through and are going to go on living through.
No one likes admitting they've been fooled – or that they've fooled themselves. And of course we're relieved and glad he is alive. My god, of course we are.
A civil activist called Server Mustafaev was arrested by Russian forces in Crimea almost two weeks ago, and charged with Islamic extremism. Server described himself as a citizen journalist, and was untiring in documenting other people's arrests and detentions and disappearances before his own. The CPJ has said nothing about his case. No open letter like the one they've just written to President Poroshenko over Babchenko, no outrage. They wrote no open letter to Putin over the 'extremism' conviction of Crimean journalist Mykola Semena either. In Server's case they'd argue, I'm sure, that he is not a journalist as he was not published in any mainstream media and mainly posted livestream videos and photos online. And if we're being honest I can see the point; it's pretty hard to define these days who a 'journalist' is. But when no 'real journalist' in mainstream media covers such obviously fake cases in Crimea, except Russian media which covers them all the time to show how special forces are winning the war against terrorism – what's a person to do but pick up a camera, and court persecution with no protection?
Last week a civilian called Mikhail was killed by a bullet in the east Ukraine frontline town of Mariinka. He never really made it into Ukrainian, let alone international news. He was 35, disabled, and until recently lived with his mother (I say 'until recently' not because he's recently no longer alive but because his mother died a week or so before he did. Before that a family grave in the cemetery got hit by a shell and blasted open). Not a very prepossessing subject for media attention, Mikhail. The head of the Mariinka civilian-military administration, as well as several townspeople, told me he was killed by a sniper's exploding or expanding bullet, banned under International Humanitarian Law. I don't know whether that's true. A few days later a beautiful 15 year old girl with an extensive collection of lovely social media portraits was killed by a shell near Zalizne, not far from Mariinka. Unlike Mikhail the fatality appeared a lot in Ukrainian media and god forgive me I wondered initially whether it was true too, because she was so perfect for Ukrainian propaganda purposes. (It is true).
To be honest, I wrote that paragraph above about Server Mustafaev as a kind of trick, because I know you might read a piece about Babchenko. To be honest, I'm not sure why I'm telling you about Mikhail and Darya. No outrageous life-is-stranger-than-fiction story here. No affronted dignity. No one paid 40,000 dollars to get rid of them. No one rushed to put up memorial plaques and then, feeling weirdly ashamed, had to take them down. They are actually nobodies in the information war and the actual war. The OSCE and UN will record their deaths, and probably they'll get added to the case Ukraine is putting together to bring to the Hague against Russia. The other side will have added its own deaths to its own case. And there will be relatives even after four years of war who are unable to believe it, who with some deep and vital part of themselves are waiting and hoping to hear the news that it's not true, that Darya is alive, Mikhail is alive, all the missing and the killed are alive. It was a trick, these last four years of war and horror and loss are all a fake. It was lies and we were fools right from the beginning.
And it's true, it was, and we were.
Decency and solace
Published May 30, 2018	Ukraine , war 1 Comment
Tags: east Ukraine war, missing in action, missing people
Kushugum cemetery, Zaporizhia, where Ukraine buries its unknown soldiers from the east Ukraine war. I was last here in 2015 and early 2016, for a funeral and an exhumation. It was the saddest, most desolate, temporary-looking place; alongside the heaped recently-dug graves with identical wooden crosses were gaping pits for new bodies.
Now it looks like this. Of all the graves here, four now have names on. One is Artyom Kalyberda, killed aged 24 in a military retreat from Russian forces at Ilovaisk in August 2014. He was identified by DNA match and after an exhumation the following year. His family believe he's dead, and don't believe he's dead. Last time I saw his sister and his brother-in-law, they were still calling his phone, just in case, one day, he answers. Valera held his hand over Artyom's photograph and said it felt warm – a sign that he's alive.
One of the other graves still has the same number, more than two years after it was exhumed for a repeat DNA test at the request of a missing soldier's mother. They sawed off pieces for a repeat sample right there in the cemetery. Then the body was buried again, and Luda, who after two DNA matches is still waiting for her son to come home, collected some of the earth in a handkerchief, and we went in search of a priest who could 'seal' the grave after it had been disturbed.
At the church, one of those officious women who clean the floors and snuff out the votive candles in the candle holders said "Is it an Orthodox grave?" "I don't know," Luda said. "You must know," the woman insisted. "Because the priest can only seal it if the person was Orthodox. Was he Orthodox?" "I don't know," Luda said, clutching that dirty handkerchief. And I shouted at that woman, Don't you understand, no one knows who he is, it's a grave for an unknown soldier who went to war for your country, only God knows who he is but I know this is a desperate woman who has just stood over the open zinc coffin of a man she cannot believe is her son, not this greyish dripping thing in a plastic bag that's been dead for eighteen months, and she has come to your church for decency and comfort and you're saying you can only offer a blessing if it is an Orthodox grave?
And then we went outside the church and we shook the earth from the handkerchief onto a frozen flowerbed, because we didn't know what else to do.
Kushugum cemetery is still the most desolate place in the world. I suppose the white gravel and granite look more official and orderly than the temporary mounds of earth and wooden crosses. But I think those were somehow better, because now it looks permanent, it looks like the fields of World War One white stone crosses, still unidentified after a century. This is a place; these are rows of numbers that should never become permanent.
There are an estimated 1000 unidentified dead from the east Ukraine war, and several thousand missing (military and civilian). There is still no systematic prisoner exchange, no system of exchanging DNA or other information across the line of contact, no coordinated search for remains. There will never be solace and decency, no seal, no end to the waiting.
Published May 27, 2018	Ukraine , war Leave a Comment
Tags: east Ukraine war, games
The night train from Mariupol to Kyiv is full of children travelling to stay with grandparents for the long summer holidays. In my compartment Artyom, five, had left Donetsk at 6 am that morning and crossed two 'borders' – that of the 'Donetsk People's Republic' and that manned by Ukrainian soldiers and borderguards – and then had an hour or two paddling in the sea at Mariupol before getting the train at 6pm.
"Is this Ukraine?" Artyom asks, at every station stop. "Is this still Ukraine?" He's been in Donetsk for a year, after his mother moved there to look after her ill parents. "Three years of Ukraine and a year over there and he's forgotten his Ukrainian," sighs his grandmother, who's travelled to pick him up from a village in Volyn, in west Ukraine. She speaks to him in Ukrainian and he answers in Russian that gets more and more mixed up with Ukrainian as the hours rock and trundle by.
"What are you going to do over the holidays in the village?" asks a fellow passenger.
"Go fishing with his granddad," says the grandmother.
"Get a tank and put it in front of the house and shoot at people, bang, bang, bang," says Artyom.
Later the grandmother gives him some paper to draw on. He starts drawing tanks. "God in heaven," she says. "Don't they teach you anything else over there?"
Published May 19, 2018	Crimea , Crimean Tatars Leave a Comment
Tags: Crimea, Crimean Tatar deportation anniversary, World War II
"Our grandfather was a Red Army hero. He had all these medals, the Red Star for undaunted bravery and everything. And he was on leave at home in Crimea in May 1944. He was with my grandmother and one son, staying in Yevpatoria, while the other two children were somewhere else. My uncle, the son who was there, told us all this. There was this knock at the gate at five in the morning on 18th May. My grandfather didn't like to hurry to do anything – it must be where I get it from. He shouted 'Coming, coming!' and he was getting up and putting on his clothes, and by that time they'd climbed over the gate, these soldiers, and were in the yard and knocking on the door. And it opened and there he was standing in his army uniform and all his medals. They didn't know what to do. They'd been told there were only women and children in the house, and instead here was this decorated army officer. So they said he should go to the commandant. He went and explained he was on leave, and the commandant said he should go straight back to the front.
"Khartbaba went back home and said he was going to the front. And then – our uncle told us – there was this huge row and scandal with bitay [grandmother], it went on for about two hours, and the end of it was that they both got taken away into exile with the son, our uncle. The other two children were put in another railway wagon, and ended up in a completely different place. That's a whole other story. My grandfather did find them again in Uzbekistan, they were living on a rubbish dump. He found them just in time, they were dying of hunger."
This decorated Red Army hero had two grandsons, who came back home to live in Crimea fifty years after the whole family, along with all the Crimean Tatars, was deported to central Asia and Siberia by Soviet authorities for alleged collaboration with the occupying Nazis. One of those grandsons told me this story (which I've written down from memory). The other was killed in March 2014 for making a totally silent, solitary, peaceful protest against the Russian takeover of Crimea. This is his 'Hero of Ukraine' medal, awarded posthumously.
This is a Second World War memorial in Koreiz, on the south Crimean coast, to local men who fough in the Red Army. Most of the names on it, repeating over and over, are Crimean Tatar.
It was built on the initiative of a Crimean Tatar man with the same surname as one on the monument, after he returned in the 1990s to the town from which his family was exiled on 18 May 1944. Nearby, the family house is still standing; it belongs now to a Russian family.
The man had two sons. One of them showed me this memorial, and the historic mosque which was also rebuilt on his father's initiative, and his father's grave – he died in 2016, disillusioned with Russia that had awarded him a medal 'For the return of Crimea' in 2014, and then harassed and beaten and imprisoned his other son.
The other son has been in remand prison for more than two years, and is now on trial in Russia along with five other men charged with 'attempting to overthrow the state' and belonging to a 'terrorist' Muslim organisation. At a recent hearing one of the secret witnesses on whose evidence the entire prosecution is based, revealed his name. He said he had never met half the men on trial and had no evidence to think that the others, who he did know, were involved in the organisation. The trial continues.
These are commemorative 10-rouble coins issued by Russia after what it calls the 'reunification' of Crimea in 2014. They were given to me by two Russian women from Simferopol, the capital city of Crimea. They said, their voices chiming and interrupting and agreeing, ending each other's sentences, repeating the same phrases:
"I've got nothing against Tatars, you can meet very good ones, I adore them, but we were scared on 18 May when they marked the deportation every year… If it hadn't been for Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] the Tatars would have just destroyed us, it would have been the most terrible thing on the whole planet… They all came here [to Simferopol], it was awful, they said such strange things about Russia, it was such a stressful situation, all you'd need to do is light a match and it would all go up. Every year… On 18 May we couldn't go out because they were coming and we were afraid because they were everywhere, it was terrible, every year, we were afraid even to go to school… Not anymore. Now it's all civilised. They have their monuments and sacred places where they are allowed to go, they can go to mosque; they [the authorities] are building them such a beautiful mosque now… They live very well, some of them live better than us. We're tolerant to everyone, our marriages are all mixed, Russian and Ukrainian, we're all mixed and how can you divide us now? … No one is violating their rights, it's not true what they say. They have everything, they have cultural centres and schools, they get given more because they were deported and they're to be pitied… It's us who get nothing special. We can manage, it's our home and we should help and accept everyone, that's what we were taught."
The 'Crimean Marathon' is a grassroots campaign in Crimea collecting 10 rouble coins like these the women gave me, by the bucketload, to support the (overwhelmingly) Crimean Tatar people imprisoned or fined since annexation for 'unsanctioned meetings', 'inciting inter-ethnic hatred', 'resisting legitimate force by law enforcement,' 'extremism', 'questioning the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation', etc, etc. The latest person likely to be in need of those 10 rouble coins has just been arrested at a memorial meeting for the 18th May deportation; a meeting that these two women would have approved of, no longer in the city centre (where they were held until 2014) but next to the mosque in an entirely Crimean Tatar suburb on the very edge of Simferopol. 'Their monuments and sacred places where they are allowed to go'.
This is a well in a wild, empty valley near Bakhchisaray in Crimea. It's all that's left of the Crimean Tatar village of Adym Chokrak (Many Springs), that was emptied of people on 18 May 1944, and later bulldozed. Because of the clean, cold water it's now quite a popular place for wild camping for people who mostly have little awareness and less interest in its history.
Schools and children are not a target
Tags: Donbas, east Ukraine war, Mariinka
After four years, the sandbags in the school windows are just part of the landscape, like the nightly background shooting and shelling that sometimes – no one can predict when – moves to the foreground. Still no one goes outside after 6 or 7 pm. There's still no gas supply. There are two new hairdressers in Mariinka; since my last visit a year ago a bank and a cash machine have been reinstalled. Municipal workers are cutting the grass under the flowering chestnuts. One family I visited a year ago has had to move after their house, where we sat and ate birthday cake, was shelled in broad daylight. The family living past the last Ukrainian army outpost, in the no-man's land between sides, still lives there; their children still make it to school most days.
"Some parents say, 'I feel safer when my children are at school than when they're home.' Because home is closer to the frontline. They say, 'I've brought them to school where I know there's a basement shelter and there's first aid, and I can feel easier.' There's that saying; my home is my castle – here it's the opposite…. It's a lot of responsibility for us."
Yana has worked at Mariinka's school number 2 for over 20 years; she's one of about half the staff who have stayed since 2014 to teach 150 children in a warzone that everyone, even a good part of Ukraine, has forgotten about.
School number 2
Recently the war changed its official name; the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) is over, replaced by the United Forces Operation (OOS in Ukrainian). Under the OOS the whole of Mariinka, which straddles the frontline, will officially be in the restricted 'red zone'. The regional governor recently visited to assure locals that this would not adversely affect them: 'You'll continue to live the same as you're living now.'
"They're shooting here the same as always. But people just hear that phrase: 'the ATO is finished,' and they think it's all over, nothing's happening here anymore. 'The ATO is over'. They don't understand that the OOS has started and nothing has changed," said Yana.
Occasionally Yana gets to leave for a few days, when she and her colleagues are invited for training sessions held in towns far from the frontline, on resilience, psychological support and landmine safety, organised by international agencies.
"When we have 3-4 days training somewhere we live in a hotel and we can walk in town. For us it's just wild that people are in the streets at 9 pm. For people who live permanently in Mariinka it's just incredible that the lights are on, that people are walking in the streets at 10 at night."
"I think you're a hero," I said to Yana.
"Oh no," she said, with an embarrassed laugh. "I think I'm a coward. I'm afraid to change something in my life. People say, come on, abandon that Mariinka, go somewhere else, find work, start life all over again. And I can't. I'm still young enough to start again but… You live here with hope. Maybe that's wrong."
Working schools in two frontline villages in east Ukraine, Sakhanka and Svitlodarsk, were shelled yesterday and today.
Toys made by schoolchildren in Mariinka
Published May 16, 2018	Ukraine , war 3 Comments
Tags: Ilovaisk, missing in action, Ukraine
August 2014, Ukraine. It's hard to know who to blame. A crappy local police station steeped in indolence and bad pay; a morgue that was built decades ago and hasn't been re-equipped since and even when it was new was never built to deal with dozens and dozens of bodies brought in by a chaotic mess of army medics and police and volunteers after a disastrous military defeat in a war than no one even understands yet is a war. Where do you put all those bodies, in this stinking august heat? How do you begin to identify them when most of them are in pieces and your staff have never seen anything like this before, never been prepared for this, don't have the equipment for this, and anyway half the staff are on holiday and the other half are being sick in corners or drinking to cope with it, and outside frantic relatives are trying to break in to find out what's happened to their sons and husbands? What do you do with all the stuff? The piles of it, heaps, the cheap trainers, bullet-proof jackets bought by their mothers, t-shirts and camouflage trousers and the terrible little presents from little children in the pockets?
Because you don't know what to do, because no one tells you and there's no one to ask and it can't really be your responsibility and it's 38 degrees in the shade and oh god the smell you simply have to dispose of it somehow, somehow – you bury all that stuff, blood- and shit-stained and charred and reeking, in 36 sacks on the grounds of a fish farm. You promise the farmer to come back for it, probably you really mean it, you never intended to let it lie there, of course someone was going to come back, the army or police or forensics or the military prosecutor or whoever is responsible, as soon as it becomes clear who is responsible for these things in this war that's still not called a war they'll come back and sort out those uniforms and trainers and flak jackets and children's toys and crosses on chains, because they all belong to someone, you do know that, all those things were taken off dead men and pieces of dead men, and their relatives are howling and trying to break down the doors to find out what happened to their loved ones.
Four years. It stinks, that patch of ground on the fish farm, and dogs keep coming and digging and dragging away god-knows-what little piece of rotting horror, and you keep calling the authorities, the local council, the police, the morgue, whoever it was who buried this stuff on your farm and promised to come back and never did, and no one answers the phone or they say it's not their responsibility or they don't know anything about it or they refer you to someone else who refers you to someone else – and you just want to get rid of it quietly and decently and so that no one thinks it's your fault, but how do you do that, when no one will tell you how and there's no one to ask and the war is still not called a war although it's just changed its name from one acronym to another? Who's going to help you excavate 36 sacks of clothes from men who died wearing them in the battle of Ilovaisk and who perhaps have never been identified? Who's going to sort and identify them now, four years later? Who is responsible? Who is to blame?
Photo: Facebook Микола Колесник
Published April 12, 2018	Ukraine , war Leave a Comment
Tags: cemeteries, east Ukraine conflict, remembrance day, Ukraine, war
This coming Sunday is Remembrance Day, when Ukrainians remember the dead by bringing life to where they are buried. On this day, the cemetery is the busiest liveliest brightest place there is. People tidy the gravestones, cover them with plastic flowers, and leave offerings of sweets and Easter cake and coloured eggs. In the morning there's usually a religious service. After that it's time for drinking, eating and socialising with the living and the dead.
Remembrance day in Zhytomir region, 2017
I think this tradition is a great example of a gift economy. People leave offerings on their own family graves – closest relatives first, then more distant ones. Then they give them to other people they know, in a complicated system of exchanges from one grave to another, until the gift comes back round to the giver. At the end of the day in some villages the sweets are all redistributed to the children to take home. In others, they're collected and made into home-made vodka.
According to the NGO DonbasSOS, forty-two cemeteries in the warzone of east Ukraine are out of bounds this year because they have been mined, or are too close to the frontline. That's only on territory that is not controlled by Ukraine; there must be at least as many on the Ukraine-controlled side.
The cemeteries have names like 'Ukrainian'; 'Poltava'; 'Kharkiv' (Ukrainian towns to the north and west, under Ukrainian control). Like 'in Lenin settlement'; 'on Dzherzhinsky street' (founder of the Soviet secret police the Cheka). Like 'Chestnut' and 'White Rock.' The people buried in these cemeteries will have relatives on both sides of the frontline. They'll have died at the hands of the Tsarist police and of the Cheka; in World War II; in this war. Or they'll have died peacefully in their beds, under the chestnut tree, only to be lying unquiet now, unvisited, mined to bring those special gifts of injury and death.
Zolote cemetery, east Ukraine
Pity is superfluous
Published March 21, 2018	geopolitics , war 1 Comment
Tags: brexit, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Warsaw uprising, World War II
Brexit thoughts: I've just come back from Warsaw, where I was attending a symposium on Ukraine at the College of Europe. It hit me at the airport of course, where I walked straight along the EU passport line while most other passengers off the plane from Ukraine shuffled along the winding 'other passports' queue. Soon I'll be in that second line; 'Take back control' will have put me in line with the Ukrainians. (And if you think that sentence sounds offensive, I'm wondering if you voted for brexit).
The symposium was a truly European event where speakers switched effortlessly from Polish to French to Ukrainian to English to German – European in the best sense of the word: multilingual, tolerant, open-minded, interested, informed, outward-looking (and possibly just the tiniest bit smug). It was the anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea. We met at the college's beautiful campus in a former royal palace, while Crimeans were busy being forced to inform their employers or the administrations of their children's schools that they had done the required and voted in the Russian presidential elections. Corbyn was busy saying yes it is Russia's fault that there was a chemical weapons attack on British soil but no, we still shouldn't jump to conclusions. A few more soldiers were busy dying in east Ukraine, a few more civilians on the frontline were busy shivering with no water and electricity as the snow fell again. The Russian state was busy lying as usual. A pilot falsely accused by Russian propaganda of shooting down MH17 committed suicide. We sat and talked about things that scare me, and I felt a part of this conversation but also not a part, because soon my country is not going to belong to this group that is already in Europe or that wants to be. Soon my country will not have the backing of 27 allied member states next time Russia decides to attack. We'll be in that other, shuffling and winding line.
After the symposium I went to the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising. On display were cherished personal possessions donated by people who survived those two months of 1944 when the Polish Home Army took on, and were destroyed by, the German occupying forces while the Soviets watched from the other side the Vistula. Among the children's dresses and PoW identifying tags and family photos and home-made medics' armbands stained with seventy-year-old blood, there are British army uniforms worn by Poles from the Home Army trained in Britain.
The Warsaw uprising is not a beautiful and tragic and stirring story of heroism and alliance; the uprising was probably declared too early by the Polish government in exile, and Britain and the other allies didn't do much to help, they were too concerned about agreement with Stalin while the British press followed Soviet propaganda (George Orwell wrote at the time that the media and left-wing intellectuals "know no more about Poland than I do. All they know is that the Russians object to the [exiled Polish] London Government and have set up a rival organization, and so far as they are concerned that settles the matter […] Their attitude towards Russian foreign policy is not 'Is this policy right or wrong?' but 'This is Russian policy: how can we make it appear right?' And this attitude is defended, if at all, solely on grounds of power. The Russians are powerful in eastern Europe, we are not: therefore we must not oppose them. This involves the principle, of its nature alien to Socialism, that you must not protest against an evil which you cannot prevent.")
But I felt so sad looking at those British uniforms, that had been preserved and treasured by their Polish owners and our allies, because they seemed to symbolise something that was good amid the horror of war, and which we are now wilfully losing. Now we are self-pityingly complaining about Poles and everyone else taking our jobs as we turn our backs on the peaceful alliance that is the EU, and Poles are turning their backs on democracy and rule of law that are the founding principles of the EU.
British army uniforms donated to the museum by Poles from the Home Army
The photos of Warsaw in 1945 look like Aleppo 2018. I walked back through the city centre along streets of rebuilt 18th century housing, rebuilt palaces, rebuilt churches; newer built blocks of flats and monuments, even newer shiny skyscrapers. Coffee shops; tourists; the obligatory band in Peruvian ponchos playing Leonard Cohen on panpipes… Absolutely everything in Warsaw is new, or new pretending to be old, and in a way it's incredibly encouraging because it's taken seventy years to do this. Just seventy years; less than a person's lifetime, to completely rebuild a city. Maybe it'll take less than that time to rebuild Aleppo. But you've still lost something forever. Someone, someone, a thousand, a million.
When World War 2 ended – I learned this after visiting the museum – the British were worried about the more than hundred thousand Poles who had come over as part of the Polish government in exile and Army in the West. There was concern they would take British jobs. At least they were not sent back to Soviet-controlled Poland, where Home Army members were executed or put into prison camps.
These days, Poles are among the most vociferously opposed in the EU to letting in Syrians or refugees from any other destroyed country that might resemble their own seventy years ago. Poland often justifies this refusal by saying it has already let in over a million Ukrainians (as workers, not as refugees from annexed Crimea or the warzone in east Ukraine). More than 50 percent of foreign students and 60 percent of foreign workers in Poland are from Ukraine. These are the people who should have a fast track at Warsaw airport, not me.
Yet at the same time Poland is waging a self-pitying memory war with Ukraine, over atrocities committed against Poles in World War 2 while Britain was providing Poles with training and army uniforms and signing agreements with Stalin to divide up their country. Brexit is a memory war about the control Britain supposedly had back then, under Churchill who signed that agreement.
History; memory; all of this: airports and passport queues, European colleges in rebuilt aristocrat's palaces, museums and coffee and croissants and multi-lingual debates and nationalist marches and annexation and wars by proxy and refugees in tents and International Humanitarian Law and the EU and brexit, to have come out of the history of total devastation of World War 2. All this in just 70 years. So much was built and rebuilt and yet we all ended up being victims – of immigration, of Brussels technocrats, of historical massacres, of faceless international corporations, of NATO, of conspiracy theories. We got lost in pitying ourselves, and we forgot pity.
"But pity is superfluous wherever a sentence is pronounced by History" – Czeslaw Milosz.
Crimean apples
I need you like I need the air
Ayder Asanov 1928-2019
This isn't just our story
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A novel about the Crimean Tatars' return to their homeland
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An awfully big blog adventure
International Committee for Crimea
Lily Hyde
New Eastern Europe
Olya Morvan
Roads & Kingdoms
Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
Standa Krupar


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An Osteological Analysis of the Protohistoric Populations of the Northern Cape and Western Orange Free State, South Africa - 625 pages
physical anthropology archaeological skeletons Northern Cape History
PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand Submitted May 1984
Elderly woman knitting, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa)--Social conditions, District Six (Cape Town, South Africa)--History, Cape Town (South Africa)--History, ,
An elderly woman sits and knits at a table in her home in District Six, Cape Town in the 1970's prior to the state orchestrated forced removals to locations further from the city.
Right wing conservatives at election rally, Pretoria, South Africa
Political history--South Africa--Pretoria, Elections--South Africa--Pretoria, Apartheid--South Africa--Pretoria, Segregation--South Africa--Pretoria, Race discrimination--South Africa--Pretoria
Right-wing conservatives rally for another all-white by-election, which increased pro-apartheid representation in the all-white Parliament, Pretoria, South Africa, February 1982.
Young girl posing on the pavement, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
A young girl poses on the pavement against a tall building in District Six, Cape Town in the 1970's prior to the state orchestrated forced removals to locations further from the city.
ANC refugees, South Africa, 1994
Apartheid--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal, Refugees--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal, History--Political aspects--South Africa--KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)--Social conditions, Best of Marinovich
A family carry their belongings home after months in a refugee camp for African National Congress (ANC) supporting families from the Sonkombo area from which they had fled months earlier because of attacks by rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). Sonkombo, KwaZulu-Natal, 1994.
Election violence, South Africa, 1995
Apartheid--South Africa--Umlazi, Political violence--South Africa--Umlazi, History--Political aspects--South Africa--Umlazi, Zulu (African people)--Clothing, Best of Marinovich
An Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporting chief fires into houses during an IFP rally in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, 1995.
David Webster funeral, Johannesburg, South Africa
Political history--South Africa--Johannesburg, Political violence--South Africa--Johannesburg, Funeral rites and ceremonies--South Africa--Johannesburg, Apartheid--South Africa--Johannesburg, May Day (Labor holiday)--South Africa--Johannesburg
Activists defiantly hoist the banned African National Congress (ANC) flag at the funeral of David Webster, a prominent anti-apartheid activist and champion of labour union rights who was murdered by the apartheid state on May Day (1 May) 1989. Johannesburg, South Africa, 6 May 1989.
Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) members and South African Defence Force (SADF) Parabat commander, Colonel Archie Moore with Cuban and Angolan army counterparts at the withdrawal of SADF forces from southern Angola
Angola--History--South African Incursions, 1978-1990, Soldiers, South Africa--Armed Forces
Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) members and South African Defence Force (SADF) Parabat commander, Colonel Archie Moore with Cuban and Angolan army counterparts at the withdrawal of SADF forces from southern Angola. Parabat is the 1st Parachute Battalion of the SADF. The JMC was created to oversee the withdrawal of the SADF from a portion of Angola's southern Cunene province and its re-occupation by the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). It was to ensure that neither SWAPO nor Cuban forces moved into this area as the SADF withdrew.
Girl standing in corridor, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
District Six (Cape Town, South Africa)--Social conditions, District Six (Cape Town, South Africa)--History, Cape Town (South Africa)--History, Girls--South Africa--Cape Town, ,
A young woman stands and poses for the camera in the corridor of a home in District Six, Cape Town in the 1970's prior to the state orchestrated forced removals to locations further from the city.
Zulu hostel, South Africa, 1992
Apartheid--South Africa--Soweto, Political violence--South Africa--Soweto, Soweto (South Africa)--Social conditions, History--Political aspects--South Africa--Soweto, Weapons--South Africa--Soweto, Best of Marinovich
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) supporters show off weapons in a shebeen in Dobsonville hostel, while police search for weapons outside, Soweto, 1992. Thousands of people, both civilians and combatants, died in the so-called "Hostel War" that lasted from 1989-1995.
Mass funeral, East London, South Africa
Political history--South Africa--East London, Political violence--South Africa--East London, Funeral rites and ceremonies--South Africa--East London, Apartheid--South Africa--East London
A mass funeral is held for 18 people, including a baby, slain in police repression of an anti-apartheid protest. The coffins are draped in colours of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and carried by uniformed members of the movement, 31 August 1985, Duncan Village, South Africa.
Pageant of South Africa, 1910, Cape Town
Western Cape (South Africa), Cape Town (South Africa), circa 1910, Festivals, History, Colonialism
Pageant of South Africa, 1910, Cape Town.
Boy drawing in a doorway, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
A young boy kneels and draws on a piece of scrap paper in the doorway of his home in District Six, Cape Town in the 1970's prior to the state orchestrated forced removals to locations further from the city.
Apartheid--South Africa--Bekkersdal, Political violence--South Africa--Bekkersdal, History--Political aspects--South Africa--Bekkersdal, Best of Marinovich
Azanian People's Organisation (Azapo) supporters charge at African National Congress (ANC) supporters in clashes between the police, army, Azapo and the ANC in Bekkersdal township, 1994.
Man sitting on wall with his young son, District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
A man sits on a low wall outside his home and pats the head of his young son who is eating an ice-cream, District Six, Cape Town in the 1970's prior to the state orchestrated forced removals to locations further from the city.
An Osteological Analysis of the Protohistoric Populations of the Northern Cape and Western Orange Free State, South Africa
physical anthropology, archaeological skeletons, Northern Cape History
Great Trek Commemoration, Uitenhage, South Africa
South Africa-- History--Great Trek, 1836-1840--Anniversaries, etc., Role playing, Political history--South Africa--Pretoria, Afrikaners--Social life and customs
Commemoration of the Afrikaners' Great Trek, Uitenhage, Eastern Cape, South Africa, December 1988.
Death squad, Transvaal, South Africa, 1985
Police shootings, Police--Special weapons and tactics units, Death squads, Apartheid, Political history--South Africa, Beyond the Barricades
A Duduza township resident lies dead while members of a special police squad take a smoke break after an all night "clean-up". Photographs such as this led to government emergency regulations making it an offence to photograph police in an "unrest area or situation." Members of death squads usually wore woolen, hooded face covers, or masks, called "balaclavas", making it impossible to identify killers. In this photograph, the man with his back turned still has his balaclava down.
islandora:854
Home set alight in pre-election violence, Durban, South Africa
Squatter settlements--South Africa--Durban, Elections--South Africa--Durban, Apartheid--South Africa--Durban, Political history--South Africa--Durban, Political violence--South Africa--Durban
A resident tries to extinguish the flames of his home, set alight in pre-election fighting between Inkatha and African National Congress (ANC) political party supporters in Bambayi Township, Durban, South Africa, 25 March 1994.
First rugby game after apartheid sanctions were lifted, Pretoria, South Africa
Political history--South Africa--Pretoria, Rugby Union football matches--South Africa--Pretoria, Democracy--South Africa--Pretoria, Mandela, Nelson, 1918-2013, De Klerk, F. W., (Frederik Willem), Pienaar, Franc?ois, 1967-
Then President Nelson Mandela and Vice President F.W. de Klerk stand at attention as the National Anthem is played at the first rugby game (South Africa vs. England) after sanctions against apartheid were lifted. Francois Pienaar, then Springbok captain, stands behind, to the right. Pretoria, South Africa, 4 June 1994.


State a noun first before using its classifier. For ceiling lamps, usually start from the top way down to the bottom of the object. For floor lamps, generally start from the bottom way to the top of the object.
Use mouth morphemes to describe a size of the part of an object.
First utter the noun lighting. Raise eyebrows for this topic or object of the sentence.
Then use a classifier to define the shape from the top part of the ceiling light. The signer uses the dominant right hand to hold a reference point while using the left hand to describe the pole. So that, she could use the dominant right hand to utter white while the passive left hand holds a reference point.
Pay attention to the mouth morpheme, such as "OO" for a small or thin size.
Use a classifier to define the form of the round light and "garnish" the final light.
Open with the first noun floor light.
Start with the bottom with the classifier. Watch for the facial grammar -- mouthing "oo" to indicate a small size. Then, use the dominant right hand to describe the pole while use the left hand as a reference point. The mouthing "aah" indicates a long pole.
Move the left hand to the top of the right hand to establish another reference point while the right hand describes the "lamp branch". Then go back to the reference point with the right hand.
The right hand continues with the further pole. Where the right hand stops there, both hands describes the lamp with the final "light".
State the noun floor light.
The signer opens with the color black of the bottom, describe the bottom with the classifier and facial grammar ("oo"), and again the pole with "aah".
Then, she first states the noun white paper to describe the medium and color of the lamp with the classifier. She goes back to the reference point where the last was used.
Also see Describing lamps and lights.
Explain how to make food in sign language.


text:
First United Church of Christ > History – Part 5
Rev. Adam E. Schellhase, D.D.
On April 20, 1941, the Rev. Adam E. Schellhase, D.D., became pastor of the Church at a salary of two thousand dollars in 12 equal payments. History records the vote as 74 "for" and 11 "against." He inherited many challenges, which were met with enthusiasm and devotion by the wonderful teamwork of Dr. and Mrs. Schellhase.
During this period, the country prepared for World War II. The Bethlehem Steel Company developed the Mountainview Section of Hellertown to house some of the new employees who were hired to carry out the production of naval guns, shells, armor plate and other war material. Through the diligent efforts of Dr. Schellhase, church membership grew from 346 to more than 500. The debt of $6,200 was retired in 1943 and the 75th anniversary of the church was commemorated October 11, 1945.
During the years from Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the end of 1945, 115 sons of the church served in the armed service, with five making the supreme sacrifice. Our Church acknowledged "the priceless gift they have laid upon the altar of freedom." Dr. Schellhase's warm friendliness and care for everyone was reflected in his work in the Church and in the community. He died December 16, 1946, after a serious illness of several months.8
Church Male Quartet, 1921-1952
R.N.Taylor, 1st Tenor; Paul Trumbower, 2nd Tenor; Herbert S. Weisel, Baritone; Asher S. Kichline, Bass; Leona K. Weisel, Accompanist.
Picture taken at Hotel Bethlehem
Our well known Men's Quartet entertained throughout the Lehigh Valley. It consisted of Baritone – Asher Kichline; Tenor – Robert Taylor; 2nd Tenor – Paul Trumbauer; and Bass – Herbert Weisel. They were accompanied on the piano by Mrs. Leona Weisel. Mr. Ralph Dorshimer was selected that year as organist and choir director, taking over for Blanche Ache and Leona Weisel who served from 1934 – 1943.
Rev. Richard H. Winters
The Rev. Richard H. Winters was installed as Pastor in Spring of 1947. His youthful zeal and pleasing personality soon endeared him to the young and old. He was a forceful preacher and deeply sincere about the meaning of Christian faith in a changing world and the need to take one's religion more seriously.
After a short period of faithful service, Rev. Winters resigned in August of 1949 to pursue a call to be Chaplin of a large mental institution in the Washington, D.C. area. Also during this period, Richard Schellhase, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Schellhase, was ordained into the Christian ministry, May 25, 1947. 8
Rev. Edward O. Butkofsky, D.D.
The congregation called Rev. Edward O. Butkofsky, D.D., to be the next pastor on September 1, 1949.
In 1951, the New Jerusalem Evangelical and Reformed Church (a union church, also known as Apple's Church) was dissolved. Our church received, by merger, the members of Apple's New Jerusalem Church, April 8, 1951.
In December, 1952, the first monthly issue of "The Church News" was mailed to all members. With a steady increase in membership, Dr. Butkofsky saw the need for the expansion of the church facilities and his appeal to the congregation to raise funds to construct a new building met with enthusiastic response. His sermons were masterful and greatly appreciate, as was the time he gave not only for our Church, but for the church at large. Dr. Butkofsky was a Phoebe Home Board member and a member of the committee that formulated the Orders of Worship in the Blue Hymnal, among other Denominational endeavors. He served our congregation until his resignation, December 1, 1954 to accept a call to Salem UCC in Harrisburg, PA.8
"During another interim of pastorates, the services of the Church were carried on by Dr. Howard J.B. Ziegler, of the philosophy department of Lehigh University, Dr. A. Roy Eckardt, head of the department of religion of Lehigh University, Rev. Ernest Miko, of Christ Church, Lower Saucon, and Rev. J. Canfield VanDoren, retired Presbyterian minister, who graciously served wherever they were needed."2
Rev. T.E. Haas, Th.M.
Rev. Theodore E. Haas
On June 12, 1955, the Rev. Theodore E. Haas, Th.M. was installed as Pastor and shortly thereafter, on June 26, 1955, Robert N. Taylor, Jr., a son of the congregation, was ordained into the Christian ministry. It was during the subsequent period, though the combined efforts of the pastor, building committee, a very enthusiastic congregation and the grace of God, that a new Church School and church addition were realized.8
NEXT – Part 6 – New Church and Sunday School Building, 1956


I wanted to just thank you, and the team, for getting my property sold, a real relief, I can tell you! But, not just for this, but for the entire length of our relationship, whilst the property was let. Quite frankly, I could NEVER have achieved that with out Jukes, and especially Esther, who kept me going on more than one occasion when I felt like quitting. All of the tradesmen that you recommended were excellent, did a good job, and provided value for money. I do wish Esther all the very best for her future!
The letting over the past 4 years were handled without the need for one visit. The sale at a pleasant gain was handled very smoothly.
Awesome team. Lovely people, professional, reliable, knows the business well. Highly recommend them, A good estate agent is hard to find but these guys definitely are the ones vendors/buyers should choose. Top class staff. Andrew is exceptional to deal with. do not hesitate to choose them. Merry Xmas to you all at Jukes.
We just sold our property with Jukes and we were very happy with the service. We had debated selling the house directly ourselves as it was a fully renovated period house done to a high standard - the kind of thing that is quite appealing on Rightmove. However we went with Jukes after speaking to a few agents because they had great local area knowledge and while that's always important, i felt it was particularly important for a place like south norwood which has its merits but also its challenges. The sale was v quick - 4 days to secure a price we were happy with. I think it's fair to say that the hard work really comes at the closing and we valued simon's experience in helping to manage the chain and facilitate the transaction, and we closed fairly quickly. They aren't a flashy agency like Foxtons but they know what they are about and are very responsive and helpful, and all materials were well produced. Thanks to Jukes.
Jukes have managed my property for nearly two years. The last tenant found was sourced in less than 5 days of the flat being advertised, whilst also having a healthy bundle of viewings! Throughout the process they informed me of each viewing and fed back any comments from the applicants. This is the second tenant they have found for me and the quality of tenants has so far been perfect. The team are vastly experienced and know the immediate and surrounding areas inside out. I've used other agents in South Norwood/Crystal Palace previous to Jukes, and I have to say that Jukes really do reign supreme in comparison. I would highly recommend using them - you won't be disappointed.
My move was a bit of a marathon, three sellers pulling out, my buyer pulling out just before Christmas. But we got there in the end. Got me a buyer in a tricky market because of fears over brexit, & always kept informed during the proceedings.
Thanks Jukes and Co for selling my flat. Was great to work with an estate agent I trusted and worked together with to make the sales process as stress free as possible.
Simon Jukes is a diamond - knows his market, good common sense, calm manner, great at handling both parties to a transaction (we've bought and sold with him and both times he's soothed the frustrations and kept everyone sensible), he's proactive keeping things moving along, and most importantly I trust his integrity. Paula had an offer on our flat that we could have been persuaded to accept - she did the honest thing rather than the easy thing and advised us to hold out because she thought she could do better for us. We did and she did. It's a shame they're not on every High Street - but if they were they wouldn't be what they are!
Very happy to recommend Jukes & Co. Their local knowledge and large local client base certainly helped with selling our house. We had a constant stream of viewings in a challenging market and they were very good liaising on times etc, was always very convenient. And that is all without mentioning their contractual terms are better value than their competition. We have used them to sell two houses now. And would use again. Thanks guys!
We have bought and sold with Jukes, some years ago, and would still highly recommend them. They gave a good discount for being a loyal customer. They sold our house within days, always kept us informed, and all staff highly professional.


The three primary sources of contributions which finance Illinois state retirement systems are employee contributions, employer (the state) contributions and investment returns. According to the most recent state comparison of unfunded pension liabilities by Wilshire Research Associates, at $40.7 billion, Illinois has the worst unfunded pension liability in the nation. Moreover, when compared to Illinois FY06 total general revenue fund of $28.65 billion, Illinois $40.7 billion dollar unfunded liability represents 142% of FY2006 total general fund. This Report explains the source of Illinois immense unfunded liability, and how it relates to the state's budget and overall fiscal position.
CTBA's analysis of the proposed FY2007 budget.


text:
Ant Group Appointed by Elevandi as Advisory Committee Member
Extending the company's efforts in fostering close collaboration with ecosystem partners and contributing to the advancement of FinTech
May 31, 2022 02:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ant Group has been appointed as a member on the advisory committee of Elevandi, a company set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with a mission to foster an open dialogue between the public and private sectors to advance FinTech in the digital economy.
The advisory committee comprises senior leaders from eight organizations ranging from established financial institutions to Tech/FinTech players. Mr. Chen Leiming, Senior Vice President, who is responsible for Ant Group's international public policy and government affairs, serves as the representative of Ant Group. Mr. Chen also oversees the legal, compliance, AML and privacy functions of Ant Group's international businesses.
As an advisory committee member, Mr. Chen Leiming will represent Ant Group and involve in providing strategic guidance on:
galvanising global conversations to shape FinTech industry agendas worldwide;
identifying key structural trends and issues shaping the future of financial services; and
fostering an open dialogue between policymakers and FinTech players on Fintech risks and opportunities.
Speaking on the appointment of Ant Group as an advisory committee member, Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chairman of Elevandi's Board of Directors and Chief FinTech Officer of MAS, said: "Elevandi's mission is to bring together the public and private sector to adopt technology and build the future of finance that is inclusive, impactful and sustainable. We welcome organisations that have shown passion and dedication in harnessing FinTech for the growth and development of the new digital economy to participate as advisory committee members."
Mr. Chen Leiming, Senior Vice President, Ant Group, said: "It is a great honour to represent Ant Group and contribute to the mission of Elevandi which we share and resonate deeply. At Ant Group, we are committed to leveraging technology and knowledge to provide inclusive services to those unserved and underserved, and contribute to the society through initiatives such as Ant Forest to promote low carbon lifestyle, and 10x1000 Tech for Inclusion to bridge the global digital skills gap."
"We look forward to joining the fellow members of the advisory committee in furthering Elevandi's efforts on cultivating a more inclusive, green, and sustainable fintech landscape for the future," Mr. Chen said.
As part of Ant Group's participation in Elevandi, Mr. Douglas Feagin, Senior Vice President for Global Strategic Partnerships and Investments at Ant Group will attend Elevandi's inaugural Point Zero Forum in Zurich as a speaker. Point Zero Forum is an invite-only, in-person gathering to frame new ideas in Web 3.0 and sustainable finance; develop new regulatory frameworks; and provide access to investment capital.
For more information on Elevandi and the full list of advisory committee members, please visit https://www.elevandi.io/media/company-set-up-by-mas-to-advance-fintech-announces-advisory-committee.
About Ant Group
Ant Group aims to create the infrastructure and platform to support the digital transformation of the service industry. It strives to enable all consumers and small and micro businesses to have equal access to financial and other services that are inclusive, green and sustainable.
Ant Group is the owner and operator of Alipay, the leading digital platform in China serving hundreds of millions of users, and connecting them with merchants and partner financial institutions that offer inclusive financial services and digital daily life services such as food delivery, transport, entertainment, and healthcare.
Ant Group has further introduced Alipay+, which provides global cross-border mobile payments and marketing solutions that connect merchant partners, especially small and medium-sized businesses, with mobile payments and other payment methods, for them to better serve their users and customers from all over the world.
For more information, please visit our website at www.antgroup.com or follow us on Twitter @AntGroup.
About Elevandi
Elevandi is set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to foster an open dialogue between the public and private sectors to advance FinTech in the digital economy. We work closely with governments, founders, investors, and corporate leaders to drive collaboration, education, and new sources of value at the industry and national levels. Our initiatives have convened over 300,000 people since 2016 to drive the growth of FinTech through events, closed-door roundtables, investor programmes, educational initiatives, and research.
We have built a coordinated set of consequential products that drive activity at the industry, national, regional and global level, which include:
Singapore FinTech Festival (2-4 Nov 2022), our annual flagship event for the global FinTech community.
Point Zero Forum (21-23 June 2022), our invite only collaboration with the Switzerland government to convene leaders, investors and founders in Zurich.
Elevandi Connects (7 July 2022), our programme and initiative to bring together early stage start-ups with leading investors and corporates to maximise commercial success in forging investment deals, co-innovation opportunities, and business partnerships.
World FinTech Festival (July-Nov 2022), our partnerships with the public and private sectors in markets around the world.
Green Shoots Series, our monthly event meetup which serves as a platform for public and private sector announcements and to discuss critical issues and opportunities in FinTech and the digital economy.
Education initiatives, our certificates and mentoring programmes to upskill and reskill the global FinTech community in collaboration with Oxygen by APIX, academic and industry partners.
Elevandi Forums, our purpose-driven roundtables aimed at bringing the public and private sectors together to advance developments and issues within the FinTech industry.
Elevandi FinTech Insider Report, our reports on digital advancements for the global FinTech industry which synthesise knowledge from our activities with the public and private sectors.
Ant Group
Betty Bai
M: (65) 9183 9108
E: guzhuang.bb@antgroup.com


This colourful building block game encourages children to make a number of pictures by following the designs on 50 different cards. Children can make animals, people or vehicles using these 21 beautifully crafted blocks, or experiment on their own. Block Buddies develops visual perception and problem solving skills for youngsters as they play.


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Harvest and post-harvest loss of India's major agricultural produce is estimated at Rs 92,651 crore ($13 billion), according to data published by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries on 9 August, 2016.
The loss is almost three times as high as the new budget for the agriculture sector, which has seen an increase of 44 percent from Rs 24,909 crore ($4 billion) in 2015-16 to Rs 35,984 crore ($5 billion) in 2016-17.
About 16 percent of fruits of vegetables, valued at Rs 40,811 crore ($6 billion), were lost, according to an analysis of production data between 2012 and 2014, at wholesale prices, by the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana (Punjab).
An earlier government study from 2015 estimated that 5 to 12 percent of vegetables were lost.
The food processing ministry also reported that 7 percent of meat, valued at Rs 3,942 crore ($590 million), was lost, about 60 percent during storage.
Almost 7,000 cold stores were created under four central programmes between 2007 and 2014 to curb supply chain losses.
These projects cost Rs 2,395 crore ($358 million). An additional 609 projects have been sanctioned and subsidy of Rs 660 crore($99 million) provided between 2014 and 2016.
The National Centre for Cold-Chain Development, a government organisation, has suggested that too much money is being spent on cold storages.
Three of five components – pack houses, ripening chambers and reefer vehicles – in the cold chain are almost entirely without funding, the 2015 "All India Cold-chain Infrastructure Capacity (Assessment of Status and Gaps)" report said.