Ramadan in a time of war: People gather for Iftar amid damaged buildings in rebel-held Douma, Syria. Photo @BassamKhabieh: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
#Douma under Assad siege for 4 years. 1000s of civilians facing heavy #bombardment, lack of food and medicine. Conditions worsening.: image via Rami Saleh @rami_Saleh2, 5 June 2017
#Ramadan atmosphere in #Douma with traditional Ramadan drink 'Sous'. PH: Firas Abdullah #7DaysinSyria: image via Diane Lockyer @dlockyer, 5 June 2017
A #Ramadan iftar in war torn #Douma #Syria!!
Oh Lord, keep them safe and bless them. Amen.: image via jacquelineroberts @jacquelineroberts, 20 June 2017
#Ramadan two years ago, after air strikes on #Douma #Syria taken via #iphone #iphoneography: image via Mohammed Badra @badramat, 18 June 2017
In a destroyed #Douma neighbourhood people pull together to celebrate #iftar.: image via NurPhotos @NurPhoto, 19 June 2017
'seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of hell, are
not hell, then make them endure, give them space' - Calvino #Douma
#Syria: image via Luca Tardelli @luca_tardelli, 20 June 2017
Several women today demonstrated in #Douma city, demanding release of detainees: image via oreusser @AllyOfTruth, 19 June 2017
More than 25 attacks on #Douma city near #Damascus by airstrikes and missiles: image via Asaad Hanna @AsaadHannaa, 20 June 2017
#Douma under Assad siege for 4 years. 1000s of civilians facing heavy #bombardment, lack of food and medicine. Conditions worsening.: image via Rami Saleh @rami_Saleh2, 5 June 2017
#Ramadan atmosphere in #Douma with traditional Ramadan drink 'Sous'. PH: Firas Abdullah #7DaysinSyria: image via Diane Lockyer @dlockyer, 5 June 2017
#Ramadan atmosphere in #Douma with traditional Ramadan drink 'Sous'. PH: Firas Abdullah #7DaysinSyria: image via Diane Lockyer @dlockyer, 5 June 2017
#Ramadan atmosphere in #Douma. PH: Firas Abdullah #7DaysinSyria: image via Diane Lockyer @dlockyer, 5 June 2017
Man arranging sweets for #Ramadan in rebel-held besieged city of #Douma #Ghouta #Damascus #Syria Photo @BassamKhabieh #photojournalism: image via Syrias Vibes @syriasvibes, 3 June 2017
One angel, an angel from #Douma. By: @rami_Saleh2: image via Eliane Alhussen @_ElianeBarros, 2 June 2017
#Boys playing with water well in #besieged #Douma in East #Damascus. Taken by Rami Saleh on June 2, 2017. #Care4SyrianKids @lylarose18: image via Rami Saleh @rami_Saleh@, 1 June 2016
Image of a child wounded in #SyrianRegime forces shelling on #Douma in Damascus suburbs, May 31 #SNHR: image via Syrian Network @snhr, 31 May 2017
#Douma... Mohamed has left school to help his family ...: image via Nino Fezza @nfcinereporter, 31 May 2017
Civilian injures in #Douma after #Assad #terrorists' artillery shelling #Syria #Orient: image via Orient News English @OrientNewsEn, 3 June 2017
On a searing hot day in Mosul, a child with heat stroke is revived as others flee Islamic State Photo @ErikdeCastro: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
Iraqi forces drop leaflets over the old city of Mosul as they launch what they hope will be their final assault: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
#Iraq Iraqi forces push into Mosul Old City, warn IS 'surrender or die' Photo Mohamed El-Sahed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Iraq An Iraqi forces member hold a position as they fight Islamic State
group fighters during #MosulOffensive Photo Ahmad Al Rubaye #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
A member of the Iraqi forces drives an armoured vehicle as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City. Photo Mohamed El-Sahed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Iraq Shiite Muslims pray at the Great Mosque of Kufa during the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Photo @HaidarAfp #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
Police stand guard at a cordon on a road near Finsbury Park station after a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London, Monday, June 19, 2017. A vehicle struck pedestrians near a mosque in north London early Monday morning. Police said a man who was driving the car has been arrested and taken to a hospital as a precaution.: photo by Tim Ireland/AP, 19 June 2017
A man prays after a van collided with worshippers leaving a mosque in the Finsbury Park neighborhood of London: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
#London People affected by the fire that ripped through Grenfell Tower sit on the pavement outside a temporary aid centre.
By @stansall_afp: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 19 June 2017
#UK Candles, religious icons and written tributes to the victims and the missing from the Grenfell Tower block fire in London. Photo @niklashallen: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#UK Candles, religious icons and written tributes to the victims and the missing from the Grenfell Tower block fire in London. Photo @niklashallen: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
A hotel staff member mops the floor where a picture featuring portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il decorates the lobby wall Monday, June 19, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea.: photo by Wong Maye-E/AP, 19 June 2017
In the latest @Reuters #backstory, a last-minute sprint delivers a disturbing image of Otto Warmbier's return: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
Young Pioneer Tours founder Gareth Johnson in North Korea (photo via Instagram): image via Consumer Affairs, 19 June 2017
Gareth Johnson with a bottle of Jack Daniels: image via Consumer Affairs, 19 June 2017
DPRK tour manager Rowan talks you through his must-see's of the DPRK. Are we missing any? Tweet us!: image via Young Pioneer Tours @YPioneerTours, 12 June 2017
YPT staff enjoying a cheeky selfie at a mass dance in Pyongyang! #DPRK: image via Young Pioneer Tours @YPioneerTours, 9 June 2017
Fancy a weekend getaway with a difference? #Chernobyl #darktourism #ttot: image via Young Pioneer Tours @YPioneerTours, 12 June 2017
$0.50
for a beer sound about right? YPT's Ben talks you through his likes and
hates of living in "the pearl of the orient", Phnom Pehn.: image via Young Pioneer Tours @YPioneerTours, 6 June 2017
Cuba: A television set shows U.S. President Donald Trump announcing his new Cuba policy, in a living room decorated with images of Cuban leaders at a house in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 16, 2017. Trump declared he was restoring some travel and economic restrictions on Cuba that were lifted as part of Barack Obama's historic easing.: photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP, 16 June 2017
A member of riot security forces points what appears to be a pistol towards a crowd of demonstrators in Caracas: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 19 June 2017
#Venezuela Near-daily protests demanding the removal of President
Nicolas Maduro began on April 1 in Caracas. Photo @jbarreto1974: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Portugal More than 1,000 firefighters are still trying to control the huge forest fire that erupted in central Portugal Photo @MiguelRiopa #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Portugal More than 1,000 firefighters are still trying to control the huge forest fire that erupted in central Portugal Photo @MiguelRiopa #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Portugal More than 1,000 firefighters are still trying to control the
huge forest fire that erupted on June 17 in central Portugal. Photo
@MiquelRiopa: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#Pakistan
Afghan refugee women wait to scans their eyes at the UNHCR registration
centre in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Photo Abdul Majeed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
#India
Muslim boys recite the Koran at the Madrasatur-Rashaad religious school
in Hyderabad during the Ramadan. Photo @noahseelam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 June 2017
Salem al Hassan al Hamoud and his son Hassan among 4 civilians killed in reported Coalition strike June 20 in Raqqa: image via Airwars @airwars, 20 June 2017
Salem al Hassan al Hamoud and his son Hassan among 4 civilians killed in reported Coalition strike June 20 in Raqqa: image via Airwars @airwars, 20 June 2017
Steve Smith wipes sweat
from his face as temperatures climb to near-record highs in Phoenix on
Monday, June 19, 2017.: photo by Ross D. Franklin, 19 June 2017
Migrants and refugees stand on the deck of the vessel Golfo Azzurro after being rescued by Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms workers on the Mediterranean Sea, Friday, June 16, 2017. A Spanish aid organization Thursday rescued more than 600 migrants who were attempting the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in packed boats from Libya.: photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP, 16 June 2017
- Sophocles: from Antigone
- Chorus of Theban Elders:
- Many things cause terror and wonder, yet nothing
- is more terrifying and wonderful than man.
- This thing goes across the gray
- sea on the blasts of winter
- storms, passing beneath
- waters towering 'round him. The Earth,
- eldest of the gods,
- unwithering and untiring, this thing wears down
- as his plows go back and forth year after year
- furrowing her with the issue of horses.
- This thing ensnares and carries off
- the tribe of light-minded birds,
- the companies of wild beasts, and
- the sea's marine life
- with coils of woven meshes --
- this keenly skilled man. He has power
- through his ways over the beast who traverses
- the mountains and haunts the open sky.
- The shaggy-maned horse he tames with yoke,
- and the untiring mountain bull.
- Both language and thought swift as wind
- and impulses that govern cities,
- he has taught himself, as well as how
- to escape the shafts of rain
- while encamped beneath open skies.
- All resourceful, he approaches no future thing
- to come without resource. From Hades alone
- he will not contrive escape.
- Refuge from baffling diseases
- he has devised.
- Possessing a means of invention, a skillfulness beyond expectation,
- now toward evil he moves, now toward good.
- By integrating the laws of the earth
- and justice under oath sworn to the gods,
- he is lofty of city. Citiless is the man with whom ignobility
- because of his daring dwells.
- May he never reside at my hearth
- or think like me,
- whoever does such things.
- [The Watchman returns, leading Antigone and accompanied by at least one other watchman...]
- Sophocles: Antigone, ll. 331-372, English version by Wm. Blake Tyrrell and Larry J. Bennett
Antigone was first performed in the spring of 438 B.C. at the festival of
Dionysus Eleuthereus. In
early summer of 439, the Athenians had successfully concluded their war against rebellious
allies on the island of Samos. At that time, the general Pericles reportedly brought the
commanders and marines of the Samian ships, members of the island's elite, over to the
marketplace in Miletus (Plutarch, Life of Pericles 28) . There, he had them bound
to boards and exposed them until they were nearly dead. He then had them clubbed to death
and their bodies thrown away without benefit of funeral rites. Plutarch, who names the
Samian historian and sensationalist Duris as his source, does not believe the story
because other authorities do not mention it. Yet, the punishment resembles apotympanismos,
crucifixion on a plank, which Athenians inflicted upon citizens guilty of heinous crimes.
By all appearances, Pericles treated the Samians as disloyal citizens, and, in that light,
their revolt is equivalent to stasis, factional discord among citizens, and
analogous to the quarrel between Oedipus' sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, both of whom
claimed the kingship of Thebes for himself. Sophocles surely knew about these events -- as
would his original audience -- and perhaps was inspired by them.
In the months before the festival of Dionysus, Sophocles entered the contest for the prize in tragedy.
He submitted three tragedies and a satyr play to the magistrate, perhaps by reciting several odes. In effect, Sophocles was applying to the demos of Attica to grant him one of the three choruses available for the festival. As soon as the new magistrate entered office, he chose Sophocles and assigned a wealthy man to foot the expenses of costuming the choristers and paying their salaries and those of their trainer and the flute player. This same man, called a choregos, was likely also responsible for paying the doryphoremata or "spear-carriers" (silent players). Sophocles' prestige and the choregos' own desire to win honor for performing an important public office and a religious duty would ensure that he would be generous. Afterwards, Sophocles, perhaps with an assistant, trained the chorus of young men, but he was not involved (officially, at least) in selecting the actors. The demos provided the protagonist or main actor, and the latter picked the second (deuteragonist) and third (tritagonist) actors, for every tragedian used no more than three. Although success depended upon the vocal skills of all, the protagonist alone was eligible for the prize in acting.
The festival had long been anticipated, and finally the day arrived. The time was early
in the morning of either the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth of Elaphebolion. Spring had
come, and the seas were open for Athenians to leave on business and war and for others to
come to Athens to see its crowning jewel, the contest for the prize in tragedy and comedy.
Athenians, both young and mature men as well as women, along with foreign tax-paying
residents, sat on the southern slope of the Acropolis. Officials and notable foreigners -- magistrates, the
priest of Dionysus and other religious dignitaries, judges of the contest in tragedy, and
generals -- enjoyed the honor of seats of wood or stone next to the orchestra. The audience
was on holiday. They were a lively and noisy lot, some 14,000 to 17,000 strong, interested
in the dramas and keen to shout approval and hoot disapproval.
-- Tyrrell and Bennett
Gregarious 30,000-year-old mummified Siberian horse carcass to challenge for Tory Party leadership: image via the Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward_, 17 June 2017
Detail of a rather elegant Chauvet horse stained burnt orange by iron oxide #IceAgeArt: image via the Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward_, 17 June 2017
14,000
years ago two bison were shaped in soft clay, by torchlight, in the
dark recesses of Le Tuc d'Audoubert cave in SW France #IceAgeArt:: image via the Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward_, 18 June 2017
The Crown, Station North, Baltimore: photo by Larry Cohen, 17 June 2017
The Crown, Station North, Baltimore: photo by Larry Cohen, 17 June 2017
The Crown, Station North, Baltimore: photo by Larry Cohen 17 June 2017
Outside port authority bus terminal, nyc: photo by Mike Peters, 18 June 2017
NYC, 2017 / DSC01691: photo by dirty harrry, 19 June 2017
Cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women...: photo by Mike Smithwick, 1 June 2017
Cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women...: photo by Mike Smithwick, 1 June 2017
Cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women...: photo by Mike Smithwick, 1 June 2017
Pieces [Ostend]: photo by _Joris Dewe_, 26 May 2017
Pieces [Ostend]: photo by _Joris Dewe_, 26 May 2017
Pieces [Ostend]: photo by _Joris Dewe_, 26 May 2017
* [Warsaw]: photo by Ania Klosek, 17 September 2012
C R I M E A "Seaside Impressions" 45/70 photo by Pierre Gély-Fort, 20 August 2016
C R I M E A "Seaside Impressions" 45/70 photo by Pierre Gély-Fort, 20 August 2016
C R I M E A "Seaside Impressions" 45/70 photo by Pierre Gély-Fort, 20 August 2016
Viel bleibt nicht: photo by Markus M, 21 November 2016
Viel bleibt nicht: photo by Markus M, 21 November 2016
Viel bleibt nicht: photo by Markus M, 21 November 2016
Found in 1981, in the lower reaches of the Indigirka River in NE Siberia, this remarkable mummified horse is 30,000 years old #IceAgeHorses: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward_, 16 June 2017
Once again -- so glad we could talk! It takes me back 30,000 years.
ReplyDeleteThose top images of Douma are unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteReally good collection today and the thirty thousand year old stuff still looks pretty fresh from here. Thanks for these by the way. Most important daily news I look at.
Justin,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much. There is Life on Earth!
The scenes from Douma are a reminder of all that's been lost and all that still suffers and struggles for a reason. Belief. Inspirational.
Hope someday we may catch up with the Ice Age... but fear the present may be gaining on us.