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Wednesday 14 September 2016

Jose Saramago: All the Names / the spearing of the bull

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A Syrian man and his son pray over the grave of a relative at a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, on September 12, 2016, on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. / AFP PHOTO / Sameer Al-DoumySAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian man and his son pray over the grave of a relative at a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma, east of the capital Damascus: photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP, 12 September 2016

A Syrian man and his son pray over the grave of a relative at a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, on September 12, 2016, on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. / AFP PHOTO / Sameer Al-DoumySAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian man and his son pray over the grave of a relative at a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma, east of the capital Damascus: photo by Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP, 12 September 2016



SYRIA - A girl reacts in pain at a make-shift hospital following government air strikes on Douma. By @AbdDoumany: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016


NICARAGUA - A man waits for funeral of former president of National Assembly Rene Nunez Tellez in Leon. By @intioocon: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016


 SPAIN - Neighbours share a drink on the eve of the "Toro de la Pena" festival in Tordesillas. By @PedroAlmestre: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016

Wherever the famous people in his collection went, they always had a newspaper or a magazine following in their tracks and sniffing around them for just one more photograph, one more question, but nobody wants to know about ordinary people, no one is really interested in them, no one cares what they're up to, what they think, what they feel, even when they try to make you believe otherwise, it's all pretence. If the unknown woman had gone to live abroad, she would be beyond his reach, she might as well be dead. Full stop, end of the story, murmured Senhor Jose, then, he thought, that might not be the case, for when she departed, she would at least have left a life behind her, perhaps only a brief life, four years, five, almost nothing, or fifteen, or twenty, a meeting, an infatuation, a disappointment, a few smiles, a few tears, which seem, at first sight, the same for everyone but which are, in fact, different for us all. And different each time too. I'll go as far as I can, concluded Senhor Jose, with unaccustomed serenity.

... perhaps she would finally ask him what the devil the Central Registry was up to going to so much trouble over one person, a woman of no importance, it would be an indecent lie, as well as arrant stupidity, to tell her that we are all equal in the eyes of the Central Registry, just as the sun is there for everyone each time it rises, there are things one should avoid saying to an older person if we don’t want them to laugh in our faces.

... it is in the General Cemetery that the results of progress are set out before the eyes of the studious or the merely curious, there are even those who say that a cemetery like this is a kind of library which contains not books but buried people, it really doesn't matter, you can learn as much from people as from books.

... the General Cemetery's unwritten motto is All the Names, although it should be said that, in fact, these three words fit the Central Registry like a glove, because it is there that all the names are to be found, both those of the dead and those of the living, while the cemetery, given its role as ultimate destination and ultimate depository, has to content itself only with the names of the dead. This mathematical evidence, however, is not enough to silence the keepers of the General Cemetery who, confronted by what they call their apparent numerical inferiority, usually shrug their shoulders and argue, With time and patience everyone ends up here, the Central Registry, from this point of view, is merely a tributary of the General Cemetery.  

... in the Central Registry there were only words, in the Central Registry you could not see how faces had changed or continued to change, when that was precisely what was most important, the thing that time changes, not the name, which never changes. When Senhor José’s stomach began to rumble, there were seven... 

Jose Saramago (1922-2010): from All the Names, 1997, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

Men on horseback ride trough a pine tree forest chased by a a brave bull in Tordesillas, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016 . Men on horseback and on foot traditionally have chased the bull and speared it in front of thousands of onlookers in what became known as one of Spain's goriest spectacles, but amid increasing protests by animal rights activists the regional government last year banned the killing of bulls at town festivals, though traditional bullfights were not affected. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Men on horseback ride through a pine tree forest chased by a brave bull in Tordesillas, Spain. Men on horseback and on foot traditionally have chased the bull and speared it in front of thousands of onlookers in what became known as one of Spain’s goriest spectacles, but amid increasing protests by animal rights activists the regional government last year banned the killing of bulls at town festivals, though traditional bullfights were not affected.: photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP, 13 September 2016

Men on horseback ride trough a pine tree forest chased by a a brave bull in Tordesillas, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016 . Men on horseback and on foot traditionally have chased the bull and speared it in front of thousands of onlookers in what became known as one of Spain's goriest spectacles, but amid increasing protests by animal rights activists the regional government last year banned the killing of bulls at town festivals, though traditional bullfights were not affected. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Men on horseback ride through a pine tree forest chased by a brave bull in Tordesillas, Spain. Men on horseback and on foot traditionally have chased the bull and speared it in front of thousands of onlookers in what became known as one of Spain’s goriest spectacles, but amid increasing protests by animal rights activists the regional government last year banned the killing of bulls at town festivals, though traditional bullfights were not affected.: photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP, 13 September 2016

A young Nepalese girl wearing traditional attire waits for the Kumari puja to start at Hanuman Dhoka temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Girls under the age of nine gathered for the Kumari puja, a tradition of worshiping young prepubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in the Newar community that seeks divine blessings to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

 A young Nepalese girl wearing traditional attire waits for the Kumari puja to start at Hanuman Dhoka temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal: photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP, 14 September 2016

A young Nepalese girl wearing traditional attire waits for the Kumari puja to start at Hanuman Dhoka temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Girls under the age of nine gathered for the Kumari puja, a tradition of worshiping young prepubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in the Newar community that seeks divine blessings to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

 A young Nepalese girl wearing traditional attire waits for the Kumari puja to start at Hanuman Dhoka temple, in Kathmandu, Nepal: photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP, 14 September 2016


Colin Powell: photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via the Intercept, 13 September 2016

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Colin Powell: photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via the Intercept, 13 September 2016

Colin Powell Urged Hillary Clinton's Team Not to Scapegoat Him for Her Private Server, Leaked Emails Reveal: Lee Fang and Naomi LaChance, The Intercept, 13 September 2016

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell attempted to discourage Hillary Clinton and her team from using him as a scapegoat for her private email server problems, according to newly leaked emails from Powell’s Gmail account.

“Sad thing,” Powell wrote to one confidant, “HRC could have killed this two years ago by merely telling everyone honestly what she had done and not tie me to it.”


“I told her staff three times not to try that gambit. I had to throw a mini tantrum at a Hampton’s party to get their attention. She keeps tripping into these ‘character’ minefields,” Powell lamented. He noted that he had tried to settle the matter by meeting with Clinton aide Cheryl Mills in August.  

Powell’s private messages were leaked by D.C. Leaks, an anonymously managed website that shares hacked emails from U.S. military and political figures. D.C. Leaks has a relationship with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker that many allege to have ties with Russian intelligence. D.C. Leaks provided access to Powell’s emails to a number of reporters on Tuesday.

The emails show Powell regularly corresponding with reporters and friends about the Clinton email server scandal, explaining that his situation was different. When Powell arrived at the State Department, the information technology system was badly dated, he argued. And unlike Clinton, Powell never set up a private server. Instead, he used his personal AOL account, on a server maintained by AOL, and used a government computer for classified communications.

“It is no secret that I used a[n] unclassified personal email account in addition to my classified State computer,” Powell wrote to the New York Times’ Amy Chozick. He implored the dozens of reporters and producers who emailed him to read his book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, in which he devoted an entire chapter to his efforts to revamp the State Department’s IT system.

The Clinton campaign’s effort to blur the lines between Clinton’s private email server and Powell’s AOL account left Powell deeply frustrated.

“They are going to dick up the legitimate and necessary use of emails with friggin record rules. I saw email more like a telephone than a cable machine,” Powell wrote last year to his business partner Jeffrey Leeds. “As long as the stuff is unclassified. I had a secure State.gov machine. Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”

Powell added in a tangential complaint: “I told you about the gig I lost at a University because she so overcharged them they came under heat and couldn’t any fees for awhile. I should send her a bill.”

Clinton sought Powell’s advice at a dinner on June 16, 2009 at former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s house, according to the emails. Powell gave Clinton “written guidance on why and how [he] had been doing it.” Also in attendance were former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Eagleburger, George Schultz, Warren Christopher, James Baker and Henry Kissinger.

“Dumb. She should have done a ‘Full Monty’ at the beginning,” Powell wrote. He added: “I warned her staff three times over the past two years not to try to connect it to me. I am not sure HRC even knew or understood what was going on in the basement.”



Colin Powell and mega Dem donor Jeffrey Leeds chat about how much the Clintons hate Obama (via newly leaked emails): image via Les Fang @lhfang, 13 September 2016
 

Colin Powell and mega Dem donor Jeffrey Leeds chat about how much the Clintons hate Obama (via newly leaked emails): image via Les Fang @lhfang, 13 September 2016


Also back in 2015, Leeds and Powell discussed Hillary's health: image via Les Fang @lhfang, 13 September 2016


Clinton server technicians decline questions from Congress
: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 14 September 2016


 
Mook: #Clinton did not lose consciousness, full medical update later this week #TheLead: image via jake tapper Verified account #@jaketapper, 12 September 2016


Can someone explain why Jim Harbaugh denying that he ate a booger is a top story for USA Today? #BoogerGate: image via Benjamin Fang @BenFang93, 12 September 2016
 

US - A fashion show attendee walks past a grafitti wall during New York Fashion Week. By @timothyaclary #AFP
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 September 2016



Israeli soldiers manuever a tank during a military exercise in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. By @jalaamarey: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016
 Palestinian women swim in the Mediterranean sea on the beach in Tel Aviv during the Eid al-Adha holiday

Palestinian women take a dip in the Mediterranean sea in Tel Aviv during Eid al-Adha holiday: photo by Menahem Kahana, AFP, 14 September 2016

Palestinian women swim in the Mediterranean sea on the beach in Tel Aviv during the Eid al-Adha holiday 

Palestinian women take a dip in the Mediterranean sea in Tel Aviv during Eid al-Adha holiday: photo by Menahem KahanaAFP, 14 September 2016
 

Palestinian women swim in the Mediterranean sea in Tel Aviv during Eid al-Adha holiday #AFP Photo by Menahem Kahane: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 September 2016

Migrants from the 'Jungle' migrant camp who have been denied access to a bus heading to a "Welcome and orientation centre" (CAO) are gathered under police surveillance, on September 13, 2016 in Calais, as part of a plan to dismantle the camp.

Migrants from the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp who have been denied access to a bus heading to a “Welcome and orientation centre” (CAO) are gathered under police surveillance today: photo by Philippe Huguen/AFP, 13 September 2016

Migrants from the 'Jungle' migrant camp who have been denied access to a bus heading to a "Welcome and orientation centre" (CAO) are gathered under police surveillance, on September 13, 2016 in Calais, as part of a plan to dismantle the camp.  

Migrants from the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp who have been denied access to a bus heading to a “Welcome and orientation centre” (CAO) are gathered under police surveillance today: photo by Philippe Huguen/AFP, 13 September 2016

 
PAKISTAN - Muslim children look out of a window during the Eid al-Adha prayers in mosque in Karachi. By Asif Hassan
: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016


Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Model feebee poses as part of art installation “Narcissism : Dazzle room” made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo: photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP, 14 September 2016

Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Model feebee poses as part of art installation “Narcissism : Dazzle room” made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo: photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP, 14 September 2016

Zebras walk towards crossing wildebeest in the Mara river during the annual wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara game reserve on September 13, 2016.  / AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZACARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images
 
Zebras walk towards crossing wildebeest in the Mara river during the annual wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara game reserve: photo by Carl De Souza/AFP, 13 September 2016

Zebras walk towards crossing wildebeest in the Mara river during the annual wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara game reserve on September 13, 2016.  / AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZACARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

Zebras walk towards crossing wildebeest in the Mara river during the annual wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara game reserve: photo by Carl De Souza/AFP, 13 September 2016


KENYA - The annual wildebeests migration in the Masai Mara game reserve. By @CarldeSouza1 #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 September 2016

A police personnel canes a motorcyclist during a curfew following violence in the city due to the Cauvery water sharing dispute with neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore

A police personnel canes a motorcyclist during a curfew following violence in the city due to the Cauvery water sharing dispute with neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore: photo by Manjunath Kiran/AFP 13 September 2016

A police personnel canes a motorcyclist during a curfew following violence in the city due to the Cauvery water sharing dispute with neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore

A police personnel canes a motorcyclist during a curfew following violence in the city due to the Cauvery water sharing dispute with neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, in Bangalore: photo by Manjunath Kiran/AFP 13 September 2016



#Syria Following a reported air strike in the northern city of Aleppo, on September 11 #AFP: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY\, 12 September 2016
 


#Syria Following a reported air strike in the northern city of Aleppo, on September 11 #AFP: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 12 September 2016


#Myanmar #sunset Residents of Sittwe play football on the Bay of Bengal on Sept 6 #AFP by Romeo Gacad
: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 10 September 2016



#Portugal #sunrise on the isle of Madeira
#AFP
Photo by Patricia De Melo Moreira: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 11 September 2016




The sunset is seen over New York on September 11 #AFP Photo by Kena Betancur: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 11 September 2016
 

2 comments:

Sandra said...

algunos quieren saber sobre los otros pero no todos quieren que sepan sobre ellos..ser una persona desconocida puede ser un privilegio...

TC said...

si, pero es un privilegio que es muy raro...