collapsing toys

NY

2012-01-26T22:24:00.001-05:00

partir

2012-01-20T10:36:00.001-05:00

Cairo

2012-01-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

Tahrir

2012-01-13T10:04:00.000-05:00

Mubarak's National Democratic Party headquarters

Tibz

2012-01-12T15:07:00.001-05:00

Cairo / Sakara

2012-01-12T09:59:00.000-05:00

camels

2012-01-11T21:32:00.000-05:00

flora / fauna

2012-01-10T11:05:00.003-05:00

Luxor

2012-01-10T10:38:00.000-05:00

فلوكة‎

2012-01-06T12:40:00.001-05:00

Egyptians

2012-01-05T16:05:00.002-05:00

Luxor

2012-01-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

occupy wall street

2011-11-17T20:50:00.003-05:00

The Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated its two month anniversary on November 17th with a Day of Action. I join them around 3pm at Union Square, where a fraction of the occupiers is merging with New York students to protest against university fees. The initial plan was to "occupy the subway" but people around me explain it makes more sense to come and support the students. In any case, most here support both causes (continue reading...)

new york

2011-11-16T20:32:00.000-05:00

DC

2011-11-14T22:44:00.001-05:00

Ukrainian style

2011-11-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

Irene

2011-09-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

DC

2011-09-07T23:05:00.000-04:00

borispol

2011-09-07T23:02:00.000-04:00

chess

2011-09-06T22:17:00.000-04:00

cemetery

2011-09-05T22:41:00.000-04:00

Печерська лавра

2011-09-03T19:13:00.002-04:00

Kalynivsky Market

2011-09-02T20:33:00.001-04:00

the road back

2011-08-27T20:52:00.001-04:00

No one speaks during the ride back, but thoughts are so loud they can be heard. The driver stops on the side of the road to buy two bags of tomatoes, handing them to me through the window. When he drops us off at the hotel, he gives me the thumbs up, shakes my dad's hand, and then kisses both my mother's hand and mine.

коньяк

2011-08-26T17:52:00.001-04:00

"Are you hungry?" is what Yaroslav probably asks as we get back in the car, in which the driver is humming to a Enrique Iglesias song. We drive in reverse on the tiny dirt road even slower than before. A girl walks by, going in the opposite direction. Yaroslav says something and gets out of the car, letting her in. She must be about 16 years old. No one says anything - Enrique's got the floor. When we arrive at the intersection, she gets out and walks to a big house in which she disappears. About 10 minutes later, Yaroslav comes out with plastic bags and tells the driver to follow him. We drive behind his enthusiastic figure until we reach his house. He's inviting us for coffee.

A shirtless teenager is not what I expected to see in this spotlessly decorated wooden house. This is Paul, his son. Yaroslav sets the table and serves us coffee, orange juice, cakes, pieces of honeycomb (they eat them like snacks) and watermelon. Conversation is eased by a pen and paper, on which my dad and Yaroslav successively draw their families in stick figures. Paul studies law at the University of Chernivtsi. Yaroslav's wife, Galiena, works in a doctor's office three kilometers from here. They were all born in Vynyatyntsi.

Then Yaroslav opens the glass cabinet and gets out an heavy round bottle of Cognac. He says we have to drink the Ukrainian way to celebrate our encounter and gives us each a small glass, that he fills with the golden liquid. In Ukraine, the host makes the first toast to honor the guest or the occasion. The guest reciprocates the honor by making the second toast. Warmth flows down to my stomach and I bite into a juicy piece of watermelon. Yaroslav insists for the third toast, which is given in celebration of women.

"Palina, Noella i Galiena," he says before swallowing his third glass-full. We do the same.

When we decide to leave, Yaroslav sprints upstairs, signaling us to wait. He comes back down with an embroidery that Galiena has made. A gift for us to remember this day by. As we drive away, he makes me promise I will come back to see Paul in 2012 and waves until he become tiny in the distance.

1970

2011-08-25T22:57:00.001-04:00

Moses and his four children

babushka

2011-08-24T22:36:00.002-04:00

We drive a few meters back and turn left onto a small dirt road that winds down to the village. The road is so narrow that we drive extremely slowly. Little ducks swim in a triangular pattern in a stream that follows the road. Yaroslav talks excitedly, fidgeting on the middle back seat. He shouts when we arrive in front of an open gate that hides a house with a farm.

A woman in her fifties gets out, frowning, and Yaroslav blurts out a long explanation. She smiles shyly, looking at us with fear and shame, almost hiding behind her broomstick. At first she refuses whatever Yaroslav has asked her. But he insists. She disappears in the house for a few minutes and comes back out. Her grandmother is sleeping. We'll have to wait.

A man with bushy eyebrows arrives behind us. We're guessing he's the first woman's father, but it's hard to tell. That would make him the babushka's son. My dad shows him his passport, pointing at EIFERMAN.

And then, the babushka emerges, almost folded onto herself and wrapped up in clothes, her blurry blue eyes confused but shining. She probably doesn't understand what it was exactly that we were doing in her home, but as her son starts listing names, she joins in.

Davidovic...

Boruch...

Herman...

No Moses, but tears start to flow anyway. First my dad, then us, then the woman who let us in. I turn my head and look at the small ducks, thinking about all these people who left or died or disappeared.
-

דאָרף

2011-08-18T23:39:00.003-04:00

This was the Jewish part of Vynyatyntsi. Where Moses was probably born and raised. There is nothing left, except a small brick factory built after the war. The air is warm and we stand in silence. The driver is still smoking, Yaroslav is pointing to various things and my eyes are watering. The vegetation has covered everything up. The streets, the school, the synagogue, the houses, the pogroms, the war. But the other part of town is still alive. Yaroslav points to the church in the background. He says it was built around 1910. Moses was three.

We stay for a while. Half overwhelmed, half astounded. Then Yaroslav has an idea. With the help of a woman translating his Ukrainian into English on the phone, we understand that he wants us to meet someone. A babushka. She is 100 years old and was born in Vynyatyntsi.

road to illumination

2011-08-14T13:33:00.001-04:00

Our driver is waiting in front of his car. He is wearing ukrainian-style white sneakers and black sweat pants, with a bright red polo that hugs his toad-like upper body. His face is huge with a wart on his nose and yellowed glasses. He wears a chain bracelet and a simple ring on his wedding finger. A metal lighter disappears in his big hand after he lights up a cigarette and signals us to get into his nissan. I take the seat next to him and he gestures NO with his hand when I try to put my seatbelt on, as if to say no need with me. I put it on anyway and he starts up the car. On the radio, a man sings 'you're one in a million, you're once in a lifetime' and we leave the city of Chernivtsi for the country roads.

He doesn't even try to speak to us, a bit offended that although he speaks German, Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian, we couldn't find a common language. But he takes the quest seriously. As we get deeper and deeper in the countryside, he stops to ask directions about seven or eight times. An hour into the journey, we are on this interminable dirt road surrounded by silent fields. And finally we see the sign.

All three of us scream STOP THE CAR. We've arrived. It's there. It exists. I feel lightheaded and shaky as I take the picture and I see my dad feels the same. There is nothing else around us but abandoned buildings, a small factory and an imposing concrete five story house. The driver signals us to go in there, still chainsmoking.

The three of us get in and follow a muffled shouting voice. It leads us to the only occupied room of the house, where a blond woman is typing on an old Cyrillic typewriter and a man is having a heated discussion on the phone. When he sees us, he hangs up. The room is cozy with a large wooden desk they share, a portrait of Tarac Chevtchenko and an icon staring at each other on opposite pastel walls.

It takes a while to make them understand why we are here. PAPA. 1907. VYNYATYNTSI. My dad writes on a piece of paper, drawing a stick figure he labels MOSES. Finally, the man's face relaxes. He's understood. The rest of the discussion takes place through diagrams and dates and a lot of pointing. He says his name is Yaroslav and that he will show us where Moses was probably born.

babushki

2011-08-13T00:00:00.002-04:00

Чернівці

2011-08-12T23:55:00.001-04:00

In the early decades of the 1900s, Jews, Romanians, Ukrainians, Poles, Armenians and others lived side by side in Chernivtsi. Some people called it "Jerusalem upon the Prut," and others, "Little Vienna." But the war and territorial disputes, as well as the rise of Anti-Semitism and discrimination put an end to this cohabitation.

Today, the city's Austrian heritage is still visible: the imposing Town Hall, the paved streets and the ornate buildings, freshly painted yellow, pink, green or blue. But the Armenian church has been turned into a concert hall, the small synagogues have been destroyed and the walls of the Moorish Revival Czernowitz Synagogue‎ were used to create a cinema. Harry Potter's being showed three times a day. The prestigious university has pretty much remained intact, but its Oxford campus look with a Byzantine twist seems completely out of place.

After a day of tourism, we get out a map and look for Vynyatyntsi. It's not on there, but Kasperivtsi is, and it's close, I think. We ask the receptionist for a driver for tomorrow's expedition. My dad stays downstairs to meet him while we go to bed. On his way back up, he stops by my room:

"OK, so he doesn't speak any english and he doesn't seem very nice. Goodnight."

Черемош

2011-08-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

Chernivtsi is not like I expected. After a 13-hour train ride across the Ukraine, we arrive right on time. We jump in a cab. Through the yellowed windows, a town of paved streets and pastel-coloured Austrian architecture unfolds. But more on that later. The sun is shining and we make our way to the hotel Cheremosh.

The hotel looks like it's straight out of a Cold War espionage film. It's huge and made out of concrete, with a big, dark lobby patted with a thick maroon rug that crawls up the walls. Sounds inside seem to be muffled. A plaque brags that Cheremosh is "one of biggest hotels of western part of Ukrain."

After a difficult conversation with a very twitchy Ukrainian, we get the keys to our room. It's on the 11th floor.

"The lift is to your right," he says, still twitching.

We are on the highest floor and there is no light in the corridor that leads to our room. As we turn the key, the door creaks open as if it hasn't been touched in decades. Inside the room, the walllpaper consists of brown and grey square flowers, and the furniture is minimalist and grey. A red telephone with a twisty cord and a dial is unplugged. A large fridge hums so loud that we first mistake the noise for A/C.

I drop my stuff and decide to take a shower, but there is no hot water. We later learn it is only available from 7-9 in the mornings and 9-11 in the evenings. We look at the view, which reminds us how far we are to the town center and get ready to head out. The elevator never comes so we take the stairs down and as we exit, the twitchy man tells a maid carrying a mountain of sheets that the lift "не работает."

first night

2011-08-06T06:53:00.005-04:00

For our first night in Kiev, we go to Parvek because the guide says it's the best Ukrainian restaurant in town. We are on the verge of collapsing of fatigue so it's a relief they have english menus. We decide on a green borsh, a chicken Kiev and a chicken shashlick with village potatoes "cooked in pork's fat."

Our waitress is dressed in a traditional costume with her breasts spilling out. As she takes our order, she pauses and thinks.

"It will be 40 minutes," she said in a delicious Ukrainian accent. PANIC. We change our dishes to whatever is quickest to prepare: a trout, a salmon, and the green borsh stays.

She pauses to think again as we cringe, looking up at her face: "20 minutes."

Old TVs are playing a Charly Chaplin movie with a huge chicken in it and a band is setting up right in front of our table. The four men are dressed in black and start playing an Elvis song. The bassist is prettty much standing behind a pillar, the pianist is sitting with a straight back, squinting through his glasses at the sheet of music, but my favourite is the drummer, whose face is frozen in an expression of total and absolute boredom. Our food arrives.

The band plays a couple more oldies separated by 2-minute silences and get up to pack their instruments. As they leave we decide to order dessert. My dad proudly orders an apple strudel in Russian. The waitress grimaces.

"It will be 25 minutes."

kyiv

2011-08-03T06:53:00.001-04:00

why we went

2011-08-01T09:07:00.010-04:00

Moses Eifermann was born in Vynyatyntsi in 1907. In the early 20s, he moved to Chernivtsi where he probably went to school. At that time, there were about 60,000 jews living in the capital of Bucovina - a region of Austria-Hungary that oscillated between Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine after the fall of the empire. There was a big synagogue on Teatralna Potsha, renowned for its exotic style and a flourishing community that spoke German and Yiddish. But the situation worsened quickly for jews of the area, long before the second world war. Anti-Semitism was on the rise even before the terrorizing of the pro-fascist union of the Iron Guard.

Moses fled to France with his brother David in the late 20s. He landed in Montpellier, where he went to medical school. He graduated in 1936. When the war came to France, he enlisted in the army. He was arrested in Dunkerque and was sent to a work camp in Germany in 1941. A year later, he was released and went back to Montpellier. By then, the war had completely engulfed France. Thousands of jews were being denounced and deported every day. He hid in his friend Marthe's house, who let him take the identity of her recently deceased husband. He was Maurice Rascalou for two years.

Moses, 1927. // Mose and Jacqueline with two of their children, Dominique and Guy.

In 1945, he made it to Paris and changed his name to Maurice Eiferman. He was a Communist and worked as a doctor in La Courneuve, a suburban city of similar political orientation. He was married to Dina, a dentist, who had poor health and could never conceive. In 1952, he had a child with Jacqueline.

Every time her dad would come to visit in his big grey coat, Dominique thought he was the rabbit skin merchant coming to take her away because she had been bad. She lived in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois with her mother and her grandmother, and soon after, he baby brother Charles. Her mother would braid her hair and dress her children up every 15 days, when Moses came.

In 1958, Moses and Jacqueline got married. She was heavily pregnant and Catherine was born two weeks later. The family moved to Paris. They had one more child, Guy, in 1959.

This summer, I persuaded Guy (my father) to go to the Ukraine.

coming back

2011-07-31T12:36:00.001-04:00

Being back in Paris is a bit like waking up from a dream. A hot, smelly and dusty dream. Paris feels empty and cool, and the feeling of rain on my face is different than the one I had in India. Here, no one asks me to pose with them for a photo. And no one looks straight into my eyes, saying "where from?" And kids don't go up to me to touch my hand. And women don't laugh when they see I've got a little pendant in the shape of a shoe around my neck. When I get on a bus, I look at the clean and shiny city unfold and laugh, remembering what the woman in the green saree told me to make me feel at home in Agra.

"you see, even with cows, you have the black ones and the white ones and even the brown ones."

old delhi

2011-07-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

Agra

2011-07-23T17:35:00.000-04:00

train, indian style

2011-07-22T11:45:00.024-04:00

Our train back to Delhi was supposed to take 13 hours. Like all white tourists, we reserve tickets which guarantee a bed per person. Indians don't travel the same way. A bed can easily be shared between seven people here. After a sweaty and disturbed night, I wake up around 7 am. We should be arriving in half an hour, according to my ticket. Not the most comfortable ride ever, but I have the top bed under which three small fans have been attached. I'm daydreaming about where on a map we could be when the Swedish tourist occupying the bed below mine asks when we'll be arriving.

"In seven hours. There was an accident."

The train is going slower than the guy walking on the tracks beside us and seven hours is a long time to go before I can use a bathroom. Still, Ganesh must have been on our side (we bought 5 different representations of the elephant-headed god between the two of us) because our train arrived safely. The train before us derailed and 42 people perished.

I pretend this didn't happen when I get on a train to Agra two days later. It seems I'm in a more expensive section this time because there is A/C and the coach is almost empty. I'm on the Kerala Express, a "SuperFast" train according to my ticket - though its average speed is 63km per hour and it makes 39 stops until its final destination.The guy is front of me is watching episodes of "How I met your mother" and reading the newspaper, which displays a huge photograph of the victims of the Mumbai bomb blast that occurred the day before. He's got a 50-hour trip in front of him, all the way to Kerala.

I get up way early because trains here don't stop very long at each station. As the train slows down, an elderly couple jumps off. The woman nearly dies as she pulls her bag from the moving train. I wonder if I'm going to have to do the same, but a woman in a green saree grabs my arm.

"Don't stand here, the door might knock you over and you'll fall," she says while we ride over a small stone bridge. "There are many many deaths like this."

आरती ceremony

2011-07-21T04:12:00.002-04:00

The sun sets early in Varanasi, and with the night comes celebration. People gather on the Dasaswamedh Ghat as the air cools down in order to get the best possible seats for the evening ceremony. We stare into the brown Ganges and can only imagine what swims below the surface. People take a dip between boats while a dog squats.

-Do you ever see dead bodies in the river?
-Yes all the time.
-...
-We know for you it's hard to understand. You think you would die if you went inside because it's dirty. But I swim in Mother Ganga every day and I never got sick.

The people of Varanasi come together for the ganga aarti ceremony every evening. During this Hindu ritual, hundreds of candles are lit and offered to the gods. The priests dreamily dance and sing until the night has completely fallen.

We already know it's going to be hard to find our way to the hostel tonight. The map of the old town looks like a smashed spiderweb. When we finally ALKA HOTEL painted on the walls, we turn left onto a pitch black street. We walk silently. On our left, two men are leaning against a stone wall. In between, a cobra. I'm too scared to take a photo, but instead fantasize about the way its body can stand up although it's only a fish. We get home at 10 pm and fall to sleep. Our travel guide says there can be bandits at night.

Varanasi streets

2011-07-20T11:51:00.001-04:00

बनारस (Varanasi)

2011-07-19T04:52:00.117-04:00

"Welcome to India." These are words not spoken by customs officers here. To my surprise, mine doesn't speak English and just looks at me blankly, pointing to a form and repeating the word mandatory, mandatory. I manage to get passed him, find my bag and my taxi driver, and suddenly, I'm in Delhi. But more on that later, because we don't stay in the capital long. Instead, we take a night train to Varanasi, a holy Hindu city on the banks of the river Ganges.

Varanasi is a small town of 3.6 million inhabitants. After a short drive from the train station, our rickshaw driver stops. He can't penetrate the maze of the old city, so he gets out and leads the way by foot. Dodging people, cows, huge pot-holes and garbage/shit is a sport I'm not yet accustomed to and it takes my full concentration. It's 35 degrees, about 10 am, and my eyes are wide open.

Varanasi is made up of 82 ghats (stairways to the Ganges). Most serve as bathing sites, but a few are reserved for cremation rituals, or what the Indians call "burning place." Our hostel is on the small and quiet Meer Ghat. We learn to memorize that for directions, which, in India, sound something like this: "turn right, then a little left, then straight until many many policemen, then you ask for main road."

To enter the Golden Temple, we have to take our shoes off, wash our hands, and go through many metal detectors. A policeman checks our passports and makes conversation.

- Do they have rural areas in France?

- Yes, a lot.

- Illiterate people?

- No, literate.

- And what kind of crops do they grow? Mango?

- No, not mango.

- Talk to me about the Indian mango. It's the king of fruit, right?

- Yes, it's delicious. In France, we grow grapes to make wine.

- Just to make wine, not to eat?

- Yes, also to eat.

- Do you drink wine?

- Sometimes.

- That's a very very bad habit. And do you eat non-vegetarian items?

In the largest cremation site, a small group of people from a special caste burn 200 to 300 bodies a day. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to burn, explains a volunteer without flinching. Not everything burns completely. The hipbone and parts of the skull for example can be found within the ashes, he says. Sick and old Hindus come from all over the country to die and be cremated in Varanasi. This way, they stop the reincarnation of their soul and the cycle of life. Their ashes are thrown into the Ganges, which is said to provide a path to heaven. The volunteer shows us a boat with a tiny round package wrapped in a white sheet. Children younger than 13 are not cremated because they are innocent, he says. They are thrown directly in Mother Ganges, just like pregnant women, lepers and people who died of a cobra bite. Cobras belong to the god Shiva, who, according to legend, founded the city of Varanasi.

Everyone here looks at us intensely. Our clothes, our skin, our eyes. Clearly, we are different. Still, one rickshaw driver recites the names of French football players. Zizou is his favourite. As he drives us back to the train station, he talks about his seven kids, his friends in Paris and gives us his take on our cultural differences.

-You marry for love, not arranged?

-Yes.

-And you, you marry for love, not arranged?

-Yes.

-All Europeans, they marry for love. They meet, they talk, they become friends, they talk, they become girlfriends, they talk, and then, they get married. Too much talking.

paris

2011-07-17T12:39:00.000-04:00

BRAIN WASH PARIS

2011-07-08T07:27:00.001-04:00

Brain Wash teamed up with VICE France for its first ever event in Paris on 5 July 2011 at La Péniche Cinéma.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who showed up. We had a really great turn out and an inspiring lineup.

Congratulations to DRIPPED for snapping up 1st place, TODOR & PETRU who came in at a close 2nd and the amazing CONTRE, TOUT CONTRE in 3rd place!

Check out the photos here by Chris Chudleigh

and Brain Wash Online to know about upcoming events!

Uzès

2011-07-06T17:34:00.000-04:00

salt lake city airport

2011-06-30T17:38:00.000-04:00

san jose

2011-06-28T17:37:00.000-04:00

San Francisco

2011-06-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

San Francisco

2011-05-31T23:20:00.000-04:00

bernal heights

2011-05-30T23:16:00.001-04:00

rapture

2011-05-22T19:28:00.002-04:00

new york

2011-05-22T19:22:00.001-04:00

last days

2011-05-22T19:19:00.001-04:00

chillin

2011-05-21T19:32:00.001-04:00

little bijoux

2011-05-21T19:15:00.000-04:00

portraits with my new lens

2011-05-20T16:53:00.000-04:00

Juggling in NYC

2011-05-16T12:58:00.002-04:00

My latest photography project about Michael Karas, a 26-year-old professional juggler.

Global Media Wars

2011-05-05T23:14:00.000-04:00

"The United States is at war. Again.

The new battlefront, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is the increasingly crowded field of state-financed satellite television news. Citing the emergence of international broadcasters Al Jazeera, Russia Today and China Central Television’s global English-language broadcast, Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March that the United States is “engaged in an information war.” And, she said, “We are losing that war.”"

Continue to our final international newsroom project...

2011-04-25T22:35:00.002-04:00

dreams of Brussels

2011-04-12T22:37:00.002-04:00

Kosovo and Serbia, the bitterest of political enemies for the past three years, have surprised diplomats this March by sitting down for political negotiations over trade, visas and other practical issues.

This is the first time since Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, that leaders from Belgrade and Pristina are talking face-to-face. The dialogues, which are taking place in Brussels, should bring both sides closer to the European Union. This explains why Kosovo and Serbia are on their best behavior.

But a decision in Pristina might change all of this. On March 28^th, Kosovo's top court ruled that the election of Behgjet Pacolli, the acting president, was unconstitutional. The ongoing turmoil might abort all hopes for EU integration.

Even before Pacolli was forced to resign, many Kosovars believed that only Serbia would benefit from the talks. Kosovo is recognized only by 75 countries in the world (on a total of more than 190), and had no government until two weeks before the talks began, since the last president had resigned last September. Serbia, Russia and five EU member countries, amongst many others, still do not recognize its independence.

“Kosovo will not be able to move an inch into the integration process and Serbia will most probably get the candidate status by the end of the year,” said Engjellushe Morina the Executive Director of Kosovo Stability Initiative, a think-tank in Pristina. She says the lack of recognition will block Kosovo from achieving anything.

But Jacques Rupnik, Balkans expert and the director of research at the Center for European Studies of Harvard and at Sciences Po in Paris, disagrees. “The unblocking of negotiations is positive for every party: Serbia, Kosovo and especially the EU, which has proven to be an excellent arbitrator,” he said.

However, Pacolli's resignation might complicate things, he said, because it shows that Kosovo has not reached democracy. No candidate stood against Pacolli, a pro-Russian construction tycoon, when he ran for president in late February as head of the New Kosovo Alliance. According to Koha Ditore, the country's biggest newspaper, senior party members threatened to abandon the coalition if Pacolli were not president.

“There is a 50-50 chance that there will be an election,” said Shpetim Gashi, Vice President of the Council for Inclusive Governance, an NGO that promotes discussion between civil society and government leaders in the Balkans. “The coalition government in Kosovo is very weak and unpopular, so it has no legitimacy. We may see it collapse.”

“If Kosovo goes to elections, the dialogue would stop,” he added, explaining that Serbia might not agree to negotiate with the current opposition party.

Opposition leaders in Kosovo and civil activists are vocally against the talks, which actually started without parliamentary approval in Pristina. Meanwhile, the Council of Europe is also investigating Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime minister, for organ trafficking allegations.

Although Serbs have repeatedly said they would never recognize Kosovo as a separate State, Serbian President Boris Tadic agreed to open direct talks with Pristina, which makes his country's bid to become candidate not so farfetched. Belgrade must now prove that it is improving its regional cooperation and resolving issues with its neighbors, as part of the conditions set by the EU.

“The EU has said, 'we will not bring in countries that have problems',” said Gashi. “For Serbia, Kosovo is the main problem.”

For Serbia's increasingly unpopular government, getting the status of candidate is crucial. Some 700,000 Serbs, of a population of 7.3m, live below the poverty line, and the GDP has grown by less than 2% last year. It needs the support the European Union could give it. The Serbian government waited almost a year since it lodged its bid for membership in December 2009. Since then, Kosovo's declaration of independence was declared legal by the International Court of Justice last July. Then in September, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for dialogue between the two countries.

Although European leaders have not said that Serbia will need to recognize Kosovo, Balkans expert Jacques Rupnik said it was only a matter of time until Serbia would have to behave like a future member of the EU.

“European countries recognize each other,” said Rupnik. “The idea that Serbia can get membership without recognizing Kosovo is totally incoherent. The EU will just tell them 'okay, well good luck with your isolation' and that will be the end of it.”

The purpose of the talks, said Robert Cooper, the EU official in charge, is to solve problems that can be solved – as opposed to the bigger issue of recognizing Kosovo's independence, which would enrage public opinion. The talks focussed on technical matters such as trade, electricity, car license plates and travel documents. Serbia, for example, blocks all goods coming from Kosovo and its airspace is closed to airlines headed to Pristina. Kosovo cannot get its own telephone country code or join many international economic bodies because of Belgrade's opposition.

Kosovo, on the other hand, does not recognize new Serbian registration plates issued in Serbian areas of the country.

The dialogue is due to take place throughout April. Serbia and Kosovo – as well as Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina – are all potential candidates to join the European Union. The European Commission will pronounce in October which countries they recommend for the prized status of official candidate. The EU leaders will then take their final decision in December.

Dan

2011-04-10T22:27:00.003-04:00

BRAIN WASH NEW YORK TWO

2011-04-05T10:57:00.003-04:00

Returning on the 1st May....

Looking to enter your short film? As always, we're looking for the best in new animation, experimental, drama, music videos and more from around the world.

Submissions are now OPEN!

Send your shorts before the 24th of April to:

brainwashnewyork@gmail.com

or

BRAIN WASH NY
539 W 112TH ST, APT 2E, 10025 NY, USA

Go to Brain Wash for more info...

still juggling

2011-04-04T19:29:00.002-04:00

pillow fight

2011-04-03T12:56:00.004-04:00

Taking risks to tell the story: NYT journalists discuss Libya

2011-04-01T18:48:00.002-04:00

On March 15, four New York Times journalists were detained in Libya while crossing a checkpoint after they entered the country without visas. They were released six days later. The four--photojournalists Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks, and reporters Anthony Shadid and Stephen Farrell--came to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism on Thursday for what will be their only public event. The panel was moderated by Columbia Professor Ann Cooper, who was formerly CPJ's executive director.

Read more on CPJ.org...
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Exit Strategy

2011-03-31T11:19:00.001-04:00

The recent turmoil in the Middle East has ousted two dictators and worried several others. While they scramble to stay in power, some are surely also worrying about this: if ousted, where can I get asylum?

Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali chose refuge in Saudi Arabia, while Egypt's Hosni Mubarak just moved south, to his country's Red Sea resort town of Sharm Al-Sheikh. But who would want to welcome Libya's infamous dictator, Muammar Gaddafi? The absence of exit strategies could explain why Gaddafi might stay in his home country until the very end.

Saudi Arabia might seem a logical haven, because the country “has sent the message that if you are a Muslim head of State and you get in trouble, we will help you,” said New York-based human rights lawyer Scott Horton.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia has given shelter to exiles such as former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the past. But King Abdullah might not be so welcoming of Gaddafi, the self-proclaimed “doyen of Arab leaders, king of kings of Africa and imam of all Muslims.” In 2009, Gaddafi blasted the Saudi monarch, saying his regime was “made by Britain and protected by the US,” and the king himself was “propelled by fibs towards the grave.” Predictably, Saudi-Libyan relations have been icy ever since.

Then there's France, home to Haiti's ex-dictator, Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier from 1986 until his recent controversial return to his island homeland. Others who got French asylum included some members of the Habyarimana family, widely accused of starting the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the Central African Republic's dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who fled there in 1983 and lived in a chateau on the outskirts of Paris for three years. But the French have already categorically rejected Gaddafi's exile there.

Elsewhere in the world, Gaddafi's options are generally unappealing. Fallen African leaders like former Chadian dictators Hissene Habre have found shelter in Senegal. And autocrats who fall from grace in former Soviet states may be able to resettle in Belarus, currently home to Kyrgyzstan's fallen leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Blaise Compaoré, Gaddafi's friend and Burkina Faso's president, could welcome him. Others predict he might take shelter in Zimbabwe, Chad – or Venezuela, whose president Hugo Chavez, loves taking contrarian positions. Libya has a football stadium named after Chavez.

But an important factor that today's dictators have to weigh is, how vulnerable might they be to efforts to bring them to international justice. Over the last 30 years, successor regimes, as well as human rights lawyers and international prosecutors have made it increasingly difficult for exiled leaders to escape justice.

“We live in a world where people realize there needs to be accountability for dictators,” said Mark Lagon, a former State Department official who teaches foreign policy at Georgetown University. “There are less possibilities for dictators to make a come-back, less possibilities of them staying distinguished. Now human rights are the yard-stick everybody measures themselves against.”

France illustrates this shift. Despite its earlier welcomes to infamous dictators Duvalier and Bokassa, France refused entry to Ben Ali this year despite his ties with government officials. That suggests a shift – that France is no longer a dictator-friendly country, said Pierre Hassner, international affairs professor at the School of Political Sciences of Paris.

Even huge financial assets no longer appeal to most countries, said Andrés Hernández, senior program coordinator for the Americas at Transparency International, an advocacy organization that tracks government corruption around the globe.

Hernández acknowledged that safe havens still exist, but Transparency is working to shut them down, he said, by filing lawsuits around the world to investigate and repatriate assets stolen by an array of dictators.

Within two weeks of Ben Ali's flight, the Tunisian government that replaced him had issued an international arrest warrant against the former leader, and the European Union, acting on Tunis' request, had frozen his bank accounts. Even Interpol had requested a global alert for his arrest and extradition back to Tunisia.

Last week, the group joined a coalition demanding an investigation of wealth illicitly transferred from Egypt. Switzerland has already frozen Mubarak's assets that were stored there, and anti-money laundering units in France and the U.S have warned banks to watch for suspicious transactions involving Egyptian political figures and their families. Despite those efforts, the Egyptian state media reported Mubarak's claim that he had no assets abroad.

The economic research firm IHS Global Insight estimates Mubarak's fortune is worth $40-70 billion, with properties in Paris, London, New York, Washington D.C., Madrid, Dubai and Frankfurt.

“There is a growing consensus about corruption crimes being crimes against humanity,” said Hernández. “Our call is for no impunity for corrupt dictators.” Another reason for Gaddafi to stay in Libya until the very end.

The scale of his fortune is unclear, but the United Nations and European Union have announced an asset freeze against him and his family this week. Gaddafi and his inner circle are believe to have deposited tens of billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts throughout the years, thanks to the country's oil reserves. The US government announced it had frozen at least $30 billion in Libyan assets.

Gaddafi's display of force against anti-government protestors was also harshly condemned by the international community, making him a likely candidate for the International Criminal Court. On Saturday, the U.N. Security voted for an investigation into crimes against humanity in Libya. This leaves Gaddafi with few options, if he did decide to step down.

It's most unlikely that an established democracy would accept Gaddafi – even though it might do so as a humanitarian gesture, said Lagon. “As long as the country doesn't shield the dictator” he said, “providing exile can be a quick way to reduce suffering and to do the international community a favor.”

galapagos art space

2011-03-09T19:38:00.001-05:00

circus warehouse

2011-03-06T00:57:00.001-05:00

Armory Show Galleries Come to Times Square

2011-03-02T21:01:00.002-05:00

About 350,000 people come through the Broadway Plazas of Times Square every day to see the neon advertising and crowd around the ticket booths. But this week, they will also stumble upon four monumental installations and 24 paper sheep.

Read the rest on Artlog.com...

juggler

2011-02-22T19:26:00.002-05:00

Michael Karas, 26, has been juggling for more than 10 years. Now a professional, he lives in New York and juggles at events, shows and private parties.

choir

2011-02-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

tibz

2011-02-18T21:23:00.000-05:00

desdemona's legs

2011-02-16T13:20:00.001-05:00

2011-02-15T18:48:00.000-05:00

Brain Wash is proud to present its new website !

strays

2011-02-12T15:53:00.001-05:00

Met Museum Guards Are Taking Their Magazine Nationwide

2011-02-11T16:39:00.002-05:00

The guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have done it again. Yesterday they released the second issue of SW!PE, their celebrated art magazine launched last year. With 127 pages of drawings, paintings, comics, prints, poetry and photography, the 45 often-unnoticed workers are once more getting some cherished exposure in the art world.

“It's ironic, really,” says Peter Hoffmeister, one of the editors. “As guards, we spend the most time with the artwork. Even more than curators do. But we are at the bottom of the food chain.”

Read the rest on Artlog.com...

Williamsburg Spelling Bee

2011-02-08T11:57:00.007-05:00

The Williamsburg Spelling Bee launched its 13th season on Monday, February 7th, 2011. Eighteen contestant competed for prizes in the Brooklyn bar called Pete's Candy Store.

Comedian Jennifer Dziura co-hosted the event.

Jonathan Lill was the first contestant to step up to the challenge. His first word was "acquisition."

The musician Bobbyblue founded the Bee in 2004 and has been hosting it ever since.

Lilly Johnson was up next. She was asked to spell "occurrence" and "obelisk."

Johann Chen hesitated on the word "embarrassment."

Ben Kusmin got the word "handkerchief."

For Maddy DeLeon, the oldest contestant, the Spelling Bee is more than just a game.

This is the first time Charly participated in a spelling bee since the 5th grade.

Contestant Carolyn D'Aquila got eliminated with the word "berceuse."

Ben Kusmin won the first prize: a $25 coupon to spend at the bar.

campus

2011-02-01T00:33:00.003-05:00

Life in Detritus and Computer Cables

2011-01-31T11:01:00.001-05:00

Beads, computer parts, newspapers, CDs, and plastic spoons swirl together in Steven Siegel's relief at Marlborough Chelsea. The 75-foot-long piece, titled Biography, is a work in progress that began two and a half years ago when the sculptor started collecting materials from salvage stores, arts and crafts shops, and his own home. Today, it encompasses the whole second floor of the gallery, like a giant shiny snake hung on the walls.

Read the rest on Artlog.com...
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church

2011-01-28T19:01:00.002-05:00

sad lobsters

2011-01-20T15:22:00.005-05:00

tom

2011-01-18T12:48:00.003-05:00

alice and craig

2011-01-17T09:39:00.000-05:00

King

2011-01-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

Walking to escape the mundane

2011-01-13T17:07:00.003-05:00

After climbing fifteen flights of crumbly metal stairs, Edward Tyrrell, 30, walked halfway around the huge derelict natural gas tower until he found the perfect viewpoint. “This is New York City,” he said, smiling. “You have an abandoned boat graveyard, a horse farm, and over there, in the distance, you can see downtown Manhattan.”

Every few weeks, Tyrrell and his group of friends meet up to walk for 15 to 20 miles in a random part of New York City. But unlike most busy New Yorkers, they don’t walk to get anywhere. They walk for the simple pleasure of walking.

read more on NarrativeNYC.org...
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central park

2011-01-11T16:45:00.002-05:00

Don Draper would be proud...

2011-01-10T16:34:00.002-05:00

window

2010-12-17T18:41:00.003-05:00

2010-12-15T18:39:00.000-05:00

Art, according to the Immigration Services

2010-12-13T15:43:00.004-05:00

What is art? For centuries, philosophers and critics have debated the question. Andy Warhol pushed the boundaries of art when he showed off his Campbell’s soup cans paintings in the 1960s. A decade later, the writer Tom Wolfe raised a furor when he deemed a modern sculpture “the turd in the plaza.”

Dictionaries today describe art as a visual object or experience, created by a person with skill or imagination. But for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for delivering visas to foreign artists, it takes more than that to be an artist.

Read more on NarrativeNYC.org ...

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hey i'm walking here

2010-12-07T22:34:00.013-05:00

eiferman_walkers from pauline eiferman on Vimeo.

The club "Hey! I'm walking here" organizes group treks around New York City every few weeks. On Sunday, the 5th of December, Ned Tyrrell led a 15-mile walk across Staten Island's industrial shores.

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brooklyn

2010-11-29T23:17:00.000-05:00

off season

2010-11-19T17:46:00.005-05:00

Luna Park on Coney Island has closed for the season. The rides are hidden behind big gates. Even the boardwalk seems to have shut down. Only a few Russian locals brave the cold for a beer or fried sea-food. Most shops are closed. The sand is cold and the wind is sharp.

When you get close to the dormant rides, though, something happens. You can hear an eerie buzz. Like purring, but more metallic.

evil cat

2010-11-18T13:34:00.001-05:00

Battle of Fort Washington

2010-11-16T23:47:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, November 14, 2010, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation marked the 234th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Washington with a series of commemorative events, demonstrations, and exhibits at Fort Tryon Park. Members of the Brigade of the American Revolution, a living history association, recreated a Continental Army campsite.

Commander Alan Morrison Jr., 56, slipped into Colonel Pawling's skin to explain how the Continental Army fought and lost the Battle of Fort Washington.

Members of the Brigade of the American Revolution have been recreating battles of the 18th century since 1962.

The actors of the Brigade of the American Revolution demonstrated how to load muskets.

And how to fire them.

Commander Morrison Jr. also explained why soldiers attached bayonets to the end of their muskets.

And the Brigade of the American Revolution gave the audience a taste of what fighting the battle would have been like.

The actors were dressed up to the minute detail.

Young and old were present at the commemoration.

Original objects were put on display.
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park

2010-11-10T18:40:00.000-05:00

October declared gay youth empowerement month. Can this help?

2010-11-07T13:32:00.004-05:00

Michelle Riddle was a teenager when she fled from her hometown in Alabama three years ago. Gay teenagers weren’t welcome there, and transgendered people even less so. When she arrived in New York City, she ran out of money and was forced to live on the streets.

“I know how it is to be hurt and abandoned by loved ones,” she said on Thursday, during a gay youth rally on the steps of City Hall. “I’m not gonna lie, I did try to end my life more than once.”

Riddle managed to turn her life around when she found a shelter that accepted her for who she was: a transwoman. Now 19, she is an active member of FIERCE, a gay rights advocacy group for youth of color. She still lives in a shelter but participates in campaigns to help homeless gay teenagers in New York.

Read more on NarrativeNYC.org ...

livin la vida loco

2010-11-02T19:26:00.000-04:00

dancer

2010-10-24T21:55:00.008-04:00

2010-10-23T14:37:00.000-04:00

our class website narrativeNYC.org is up and running!