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How did your nonprofit decide where to house the volunteer program? Is it part of Development? Does it reside under Operations? How about Program, or Human resources?

Volunteer engagement intersects with so many different functions within our organizations. We are a gateway for community connection, an administrative function that serves one particular type of staff, and the steward to one of the most powerful methods of delivering service to clients. No wonder that nonprofits are often challenged to figure out where we belong.

There is one organization, though, that has embraced the complexity within volunteer management. At Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington, DC, the volunteer program has resided under multiple different umbrellas – and come out all the better for it.

Just ask Lisa Leyh, the Head of Visitor Services and Volunteer Management for the estate. In her 12 ½ years with Hillwood, Lisa has moved with the volunteer program through several different departments within the organization.

“Every move of the volunteer program has brought opportunities,” says Lisa.

Read More

We don’t all belong to departments of one. Here’s how a large team of volunteer managers makes it work.

An email appeared in my mailbox a few weeks back.  It’s the kind of message that I love to see.

The email came from Emily Thomas, who works for Volunteer Solutions, a program within the Fairfax County Virginia Area Agency on Aging.

Volunteer Solutions is a huge program that engages over 3,500 volunteers for a diverse range of volunteer roles – think everything from Zumba instructors to medical transportation. The program is a partnership of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services, Neighborhood and Community Services, and Health Department. They recruit, train, and manage, volunteers for Adult and Aging clients, Senior Centers, and Adult Day Health Cares.

I featured Volunteer Solutions a couple of years ago because the program succeeds at something that’s challenging for large volunteer programs: it is both structured and flexible.

Emily reached out because she’s so proud of the teamwork within Volunteer Solutions. She wanted me to observe it first-hand.

And that’s exactly what I did. I attended a Volunteer Solutions’ staff meeting to learn just…

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Do resolutions seem like a waste of time? Start your year this way and see what happens for your volunteer program

You may have noticed a just-for-fun-thing going around on Facebook. It’s an infographic that you create with your defining life quote, complete with your photo and signature.  Volunteer manager Amy Whary, created one that says,

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and think of what could go right.”

I thought of that quote this time last year, while planning an Intention-Setting Workshop for volunteer managers and development directors here in the DC-area.

The workshop was all about getting clear on what you want to see accomplished on the job – and then figuring out what needs to happen to make those intentions come to pass.

Intention-setting is about more than ensuring that the big deliverables get done (because we know they will). It’s about making room for the projects that are most important to you. It’s about ensuring that your big ideas – the ones you get excited about but fall to the bottom of the to-do list, actually come to pass.

Intention setting means making your…

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Sometimes we get stuck on our perceived limitations. Here’s how to climb out of that thinking.

It’s no surprise that last week’s post, which was all about the disparity between a volunteer manager’s value and her salary, generated a lot of comments.

The salary question seems to be something that’s always operating in the back of our minds, even when we don’t discuss it openly.

The volunteer managers who commented on the post made some really important points, including the need for an academic degree track for our profession, and the importance of making our accomplishments known to decision-makers on a regular and quite visible basis.

Please do take a look at the comments – and leave your own, if something you read sparks your thinking.

There is another dimension to the value/salary question, though, and that’s what receiving a lower salary does to our personal sense of value.

I’m not just talking about our value on the job – I’m talking about what we fundamentally think and feel about ourselves.

When we work in an environment that does not correspond with our value – because salaries are low, or working…

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Start the New Year by reflecting on your value in the workplace

Last month as we closed out 2017, I asked the members of my Volunteer Managers Leadership Circle to reflect on what they had accomplished over the year together, and to consider on how those accomplishments related to their overall professional value.

The accomplishments were as varied and impressive as the individual members.

Here are just two examples –

•  One member said that her goal starting out was to bring herself back from the edge of burnout and that she not only accomplished that, she discovered that she brought in more volunteers by setting healthy limits around her work and delegating more to her team.

•  Another member had thought she might change professions before the year was out, but since then she has earned her CVA, embarked on a major revamp of volunteer policies and procedures, and realized that she could transform her volunteer program from a department of one to a team that she had the chops to lead.

These leaders of volunteers are probably a lot like you. They are dedicated, incredibly skilled and work with integrity….

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When you nurture what’s best in your volunteers, you hold some powerful change agents in your hands

What and Why of VolunteeringHave you ever had a conversation so thought-provoking that you reflected on it for a good long while afterwards?  I felt that way last week, when I held the first meeting of my Leadership Circle.

The Circle is a group of experienced and dedicated volunteer engagement professionals who are invested in their work and have chosen to meet each month to share advice, support one another, and refine their leadership skills.

We kicked off our first meeting by talking about why we work with volunteers in the first place.

What is it exactly about this work that we find so compelling and rewarding?

I thought the conversation might focus on what volunteers do for our nonprofits because that’s what we’re hired to do – help expand our organizations to meet their missions.  And while that piece was acknowledged as essential, it’s not what these pros shared as their greatest satisfaction. This group receives their energy and inspiration from the transformation within the volunteer.

These were the comments I heard:

I love to teach volunteers about…

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Guest blogger Lisa Marie Porter, MA, CVA, empowered her volunteers to help her solve an unexpected problem. The results are pretty creative.

At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, we take the practice of volunteer nametags one-step further than usual.

Even though our public engagement volunteers wear official credentials that designate them as ‘Volunteers,’ we still ask them to pin a special nametag to their uniform.

The idea behind it? To make personal connections with our visitors. The nametags share first names-only to make the volunteers more approachable, with the designation ‘Volunteer’ printed in the upper right-hand corner.

We thought our volunteers were perfectly happy with their nametags – until our museum went through a rebranding initiative. When we presented the volunteers with the new look of the nametags, we received some pretty vocal push-back.

The Problem

Our volunteers objected strongly to the use of the word ‘Volunteer’ on the nametag. They argued that the tags seem redundant and do not add anything to the volunteer’s or visitor’s experiences.

Even though the new nametags looked exactly the same as the old ones, introducing the revisions prompted the volunteers to tell us what they…

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Does your professional growth resemble this path to success?

Jason Frenzel, CVA, ended up in volunteer engagement by setting the woods on fire.

Don’t be alarmed. Jason’s not a firebug. He’s a committed environmentalist, who took part in a prescribed ecological burn program for the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

That was back in 1999, shortly after Jason graduated from college with a degree in Resource Management. Jason’s best friend was involved with the city’s natural restoration program, where groups of volunteers would assist with prescribed forest burns to protect and restore native habitat.

“I loved volunteering. I loved helping out with the burns and I fell in love with the people,” says Jason.

That volunteer experience, which Jason enjoyed while serving with Americorps, eventually led to a seasonal volunteer manager position with the City of Ann Arbor.

Over time, the seasonal position was made into a permanent Director of Volunteer Management and Outreach role. In that position, Jason was able to grow his department to include six more staff working under him. That’s an impressive accomplishment in the nonprofit/government world, where volunteer engagement is often under-resourced.

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The volunteer engagement community has a thing or two to say about hiring a top notch volunteer manager

Dear Nonprofit Decision-Maker,

If you are looking to hire someone to manage your volunteer program, please read this post.

Last July, I put out a crowdsourcing call to the volunteer management community. I asked them to please help me identify the skills and abilities that are most important when hiring a volunteer manager.

The thought was to create a webinar with all of the takeaways and offer it to leaders like you, to help you hire someone who will excel in the position.

The webinar is on hold, but the thoughtful responses from leaders of volunteers deserve to be shared.

And while I encourage you to check out the original post and review all of the comments, there are three observations that stand out to me as essential for success in this role. If you revise your hiring expectations based on what you read, you will not be disappointed.

1. Before you write the job description, get clear on the big picture

Volunteer management is much more than a matter of recruiting and scheduling volunteers. It’s a…

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We know our volunteers deserve the thanks of our staff, but how do we do it?

volunteer-thanks-video-twenty-hatsJenna Jones had a problem.

The date and time of her annual volunteer appreciation event had changed: what was once a weeknight dinner affair was now a Saturday morning breakfast.

While a weekend breakfast might work well for volunteer schedules, it meant that fewer staff might be present. And if fewer staff were present, how would they thank the volunteers for their contributions?

Fortunately, Jenna, who is a CVA and Volunteer Coordinator for the Smithsonian Associates, had a solution.  She had seen another nonprofit create a video of staff thanking the volunteers. Why not create a thank you video for her own program?

Serendipity helped to move things along. Right around the time she started thinking about a video, Jenna happened to interview a prospective volunteer with video-making experience who agreed to take on the project.  Ten months later, the thank you video aired at the October, 2016 breakfast to rave reviews. Volunteers applauded. (Staff applauded, too, when they saw the video afterwards).

jenna-jones-cva-thank-you-video CVA Jenna Jones saves…

Read More


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Category Archives: Finished Object

What Santa Brought Me…

…Yarn! And a new KK purple loom! I'm very quickly becoming addicted to loom knitting, and I've discovered several Yahoo groups plus some great knitting blogs out there. I'll add links soon, but Isela's is one of the greatest sites. She's made a dozen short movies, and I've learned some great stitches from watching them–flat stitch, purl, etc. We'll see how I can incorporate them.

I bought some great Turkish yarn. It's got a Mohair look, and it's a brilliant green, but I can't decide what to use it for. I also bought some more Lion yarn, plus two skeins of Lion 100% wool with ideas of felting projects.

My latest project was my first real mistake. Using the new purple loom, I used two strands of dark blue wool and knitted a panel (the purple loom knits a double-knit panel that looks good from both sides. If you do a flat panel on the regular round looms, you have a front and a back.) I made the panel long enough for a French Press cozy, which is what my husband requested, but I was stumped as to how this would shrink down. Well, here's the end product! Doesn't it look like a doll's skirt? I tried felting this panel by hand in the sink, and it ended up with holes, gaps really. It's thin and pretty ugly.

So… determined to get this project finished, I decided felting was best left for machine shrinking (it would have been too small anyway), and I knitted another panel on the purple KK loom using Wool-Ease. It came out the right size: 10" x 6". I added a few buttons, and we'll call it finished. This was the first project that frustrated me a little because I wasn't using a pattern, just guessing. If I had to do this again, I'd probably use the red loom and knit in the round for a inch or so (for the bottom), and then find a way to knit back and forth, leaving an opening for the handle of the French press.

So, this is my finished French Press Cozy.

I made a ball

And here it is! It was a silly project but one I had fun doing. Using the blue loom, I cast on using one thread, but I wrapped the loom four times. I then brought the bottom thread over the top three, and continued with this for about thirty rows, wrapping one new one each time. I gathered the bottom together and pulled it shut like you would with the top of a hat. I didn't have any stuffing so I used scraps of yarn, and then I gathered the top and pulled it shut.

This is a fun indoor toy, and it bounces against the wall without leaving a mark. 🙂

Total time: 1 hour of silly fun.

Project Two: Hat & Headband!

I love this thing! Knitting with the KK looms is really, really fast. I decided to make a hat this weekend, so I bought a skein of Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn and in record time made this hat–and I had enough left over for a headband.

I've learned yarn thickness is really important with the KKs. Thick yarn is best, or two strands of regular worsted weight. I've become fond of the Thick and Quick yarn, and I like this "natural" color. I used the green loom and followed the instructions that came with the looms. I cast on and e-wrapped ten rows, brought the bottom row up and made the brim, and then knit approx. 20 rows before drawing the yarn through to pull into the top of the hat. Quick! I then made the headband by knitting about 30 rows and casting off with a crochet hook. I'm new to this and crocheted too tight, but it makes the headband fit like a charm–nice and snug on top.

What to make next? I'm interested in wool and B is asking for a French Press cozy. A French Press is basically a glass beaker, and coffee gets cold fast, especially in the winter. I have NO idea how to make one, so we'll see…

How it started

I have a cat who's always cold and in search of a warm blanket, so I decided to crochet him a little afghan. The only thing I had ever crocheted (or knitted) was a very ugly black scarf for my husband many years earlier. I remember it took a long time (a few weeks) and the end of the scarf was much narrower than the beginning. I can't remember my husband ever wearing it–and I have no idea where it ended up. Yard sale? Goodwill?

So the bug bit me again, and I went to Michael's and bought two skeins of Lion Homespun yarn plus a crochet hook. The next day, after making too many mistakes to mention, I decided I should get a bigger crochet hook so I bought one of those monster plastic ones. The next day, after many more mistakes, I decided to knit instead. If you've ever used Homespun yarn, you know it has a bumpy texture that makes it difficult to find stitches. It only took me three hours with the knitting needles to decide I just wasn't cut out for knitting.

What to do? What to do? I had a chilly kitty and two skeins of yarn. I went online and started searching for other ways to knit or crochet. I knew there was something called a Knifty Knitter out there–sold as four plastic wheels with pegs on them–so I took a plunge, spent $11 at Walmart, and in two days I had finished the afghan.

I used the yellow loom cast on 40 stitches, and knitted two flat panels using the e-wrap. I started with the green color and mid-way swapped to the cream color. Then I knitted a border with a strand of each color, and I sewed the whole thing together.

It's ugly, isn't it? But my cat likes it. And my cat is cute.

Ugly afghan or not, I have been bitten by the knitting loom bug, and for Christmas I've asked for yarn and someof the longer KK looms. I plan on making: hats, mittens, slippers, etc. Suddenly, I can't wait for Christmas!

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Mayor Rollins
Biographical Information
Status: Alive
Home: Green Grove
Occupation: Mayor of Green Grove
Physical Description
Gender: Male
Hair color: Grey
Eye color: Brown
Show Information
Portrayed by: Christopher Cousins
First appearance: "1x05"
Relevant Pages

Mayor John Rollins is an recurring character on Twisted.

Presiding over Green Grove, Mayor Rollins is described as having a mega-watt smile and exuding political charm and charisma. Appearing in the series' fifth episode, on hand for the town's annual fall festival, viewers will learn that, despite his show of support for Police Chief Kyle Masterson's investigation into the Crane murder, Mayor Rollins is not at all pleased with the progress being made.

He is portrayed by Christopher Cosins [1]

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Two people in canoe on lake - via Unsplash Ravi Pinisetti

Two Rivers Aikido explores the evolutionary nature of the martial wisdom practice of aikido through the rigorous study of form and shape. Our dear friend Kevin Choate once said, the technique is the portal to develop the art. Sincere and dedicated practice carries within it the capacity to enliven us to the recognition that: We are the art. Our humanity is the art we develop; basic goodness, personal accountability, and perhaps a unified way of seeing into the world of separation.

For years Two Rivers Aikido has been on the evolutionary edge offering Aiki informed, practice based programs to support individuals, teams, and organizations. The following is a partial listing of programs and workshops provided throughout the years.

Integrative Family Program

The Integrative Family Program© is a full bodied Aiki informed, principle based, clinical program dedicated to fostering wellness, wholeness, and belonging in marginalized youth and families. The Embodiment of Peace Matrix©, a matrix of peacemaking and reconciliation based in the martial wisdom practice of Aikido, forms the platform of the program and bringing families and youth together on the mat weekly.

For well over a decade families and youth participated in this intensive six month program structured within the ethos of a particular necessity: Making available clinically sound integrative therapeutic modalities for those living on the edges inside of our local community.

After 16 years of development and implementation, Mark and Leigh no longer offer direct services to this program. They now provide training and consultation to local, national, and international organizations as well as provide training and certification in The Embodiment of Peace Matrix©.

Embodied Conversation

A robust and joyful workshop series geared toward increasing capacities of skillful communication, authenticity, and expanded practical wisdom. The series is informed by The Embodiment of Peace Matrix© and is participatory in nature.

The Embodied Conversation has been of service to individuals, businesses, non profit organizations, schools, law enforcement ,and department of health and human services.

This program is offered once a year or by request.

Building Professional Identity

Building Professional Identity; Aiki informed and somatically grounded is: A year long training series focused on living an authentic life with beauty as a sense of place, and generating the evolution of a compassionate and well integrated professional life.

This program requires a substantial commitment and is by application only.

Aikido in Recovery

Exploring peacemaking and the discovery of personal dignity in the midst of a complicated life as a result of addictions is the platform of this Aiki informed practice based program.

Aikido in recovery is in collaboration with outpatient addictions counselors and by invitation only.

Journey Towards Center

Journey Towards Center is an invitation to the shared exploration of incarnational mysticism, aikido, and wholeness.  This offering is a full-bodied program for those interested in the study and exploration of human and ecological wholeness and healing.  It is a living inter-spiritual dialogue, a contemplative ecumenism of language and movement as an avenue to steward the awakened heart as a wisdom way of living.

Journey Towards Center is an ongoing exchange offered in a small group format and by application only. If you have an interest in receiving an application, please send us a note with your request.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

A deep bow of appreciation to the hundreds of people we have been privileged to serve through our Aiki informed and practice based programs and workshops. Thank you Department of Public Health and Human Services, Child Protective Services, Flathead County Youth Court Services, Center for Restorative Youth Justice, Flathead Youth Home, Reclaiming Youth International, NADACC, Linderman Education Center, Dickerson Counseling, and all the individuals who have dedicated themselves to the Art of creating a beautiful life for the sake of self, others, and the planet.

What people are saying:

“There is a power, an embodiment that takes place and extends beyond the dojo. Mark and Leigh hold such a place for the populations they work with – and in that space and the integrity that surrounds it – there is an opportunity for other agencies and families to step forward and envision counseling and therapy in a new way. Their work shifts conventional ways of thinking and offers a new level of being in the world.” - Shareen Springer, Executive Director, Center for Restorative Youth Justice

"I believe the Integrated Family Program© offers the right pieces, in the right manner to the kids and families they are serving. I am excited to see the interdisciplinary approach with these families. The unique aspect of this program is their integration of the art of Aikido and family therapy. In this process, West really does met East." - Dr. Jamie C. Chambers, Licensed Psychologist Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

"The Integrative Family Program© developed by Two Rivers Consulting is an excellent program like no other in giving treatment resistant families the tools to heal and move forward. Two Rivers Consulting welcomes families into their program and within months helped them learn to deal, and begin to heal from the trauma and broken bonds the parents grew up with, then carried into their own families." - Pat Sylvia, CFS Field Supervisor, DPHHS

"Two Rivers has graciously donated their time, talents, and expertise in working with the students in our alternative high school. The lessons our students have learned through Aikido based principles and practices at the dojo with Two Rivers have been invaluable in guiding them through their personal challenges and obstacles to ensure overall success in their lives." - Jodie Barber, Director Linderman Education Center


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– Omar Little, HBO’s The Wire

Whether you enroll in The Tycoon Playbook or not, here are the best insights and pieces of advice on life and business that I have come across.

Salty language warning if kids are in the room.

1. Life’s a layer cake. (Actually I prefer the pyramid metaphor because a pyramid has room for fewer and fewer people as you climb up it.)

2. Here’s another one from one of my favorite philosophers.

The meaning of life is to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.   – Arnold Schwarzenegger

3. Here’s another one of my favorite philosophers.

4.  There’s no such thing as too far. You understand?  You push everything as far as you can. You push and you push and you push until it starts pushing back. And then you push some goddamn more. – Al Pacino

5. Hell is watching an endless movie of how your life might have been if only you had taken the actions necessary to go for it! -anon

So ask yourself how you are holding yourself back?

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07 March 2016

Minnesota state parks expanding and thriving

This is what taxes are for - so governments can do things that individuals cannot do.
Across the nation, fewer people are enjoying the great outdoors. But Minnesota is swimming against that current, with more people using the state’s parks and trails. Visits were up nearly 20 percent overall last year — more people bought daily and year-round permits, and more stayed overnight to camp...

The state system, which predates the national system, includes 75 state parks and more than 600 miles of paved trails. Over the past 60 years, the annual number of visitors has increased from about 1 million to more than 8 million. And in 2015, nearly half a million people bought daily and annual permits. DNR officials point to the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment — which provides funding for parks and trails through a statewide sales tax — as the reason behind the recent rise in visitor numbers. Since the amendment passed in 2008, sales of daily and annual parks permits have risen by nearly 150,000.

  1. Northeast Ohio also cannot build trails fast enough, it's completely "build it and they are already coming". People start (illegally) enjoying new trails before they are even officially opened!

  2. I'd think two factors besides the government spending would be 2015 being the warmest year ever, and fewer of the minorities that drag down the national average for park attendance.

    1. The numbers are compared to previous numbers for the same state, so the race of residents is not a factor in the trend. And I doubt weather, since MN parks are used extensively in the winter. I would point to economic trends that cause people to vacation near to home rather than travel far, and to camp in the parks rather than rent a cabin or motel room.

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Turkey-US Relations at Pivotal Point Amid Speculation on US Pastor

Speculation is growing that Turkey could allow American Pastor Andrew Brunson to return to the United States, ending a diplomatic standoff between Ankara and Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has condemned Brunson’s prosecution on terrorism charges.

Several news organizations reported Thursday that the Trump administration had reached a deal with Turkey, easing some sanctions in exchange for Ankara’s reducing or dropping charges against Brunson.

Washington was expressing cautious optimism about Brunson’s release, which could come as early as Friday.

“I’m very hopeful that before too long Pastor Brunson, he and his wife, will be able to return to the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.  Pompeo has reportedly been involved in intense, behind- the-scenes talks with Ankara over the release of Brunson.

On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters she was not aware of any deal for Brunson’s release. “There’s a legal process that plays out,” she said.

“I’m hopeful that before too long he and his wife will be able to return to the United States. That would be an important step forward for the U.S.-and-Turkey relationship. … But we look forward to watching the case very carefully tomorrow,” Nauert said.

She added that U.S. embassy officials would attend Friday’s hearing in support of Brunson.

Erdogan position

In a sign of Brunson’s possible release, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to distance himself from any decision. “I am the president of the Turkish Republic, a democratic and constitutional state,” he said Tuesday.  “Hence, I must obey whatever the decision the judiciary gives.  All related parties must follow the judicial rulings. That’s it.”

Erdogan has been at the forefront of strong advocacy of Brunson’s prosecution as relations with Washington deteriorated.

The American pastor is facing up to 35 years in jail on terrorism and espionage charges. His next court hearing is scheduled for Friday.  Prosecutors accuse Brunson of supporting followers of the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for the 2016 failed coup in Turkey.  Brunson is also accused of aiding the PKK, a banned Kurdish separatist group.

Washington describes the charges as baseless, accusing Ankara of diplomatic hostage-taking. Trump, in August, partly in retaliation for Brunson’s prosecution, slapped Turkey with trade tariffs.  The action triggered a collapse of the Turkish lira.  Erdogan hit back, accusing Washington of waging economic war.

“It’s not only the evangelical base of Donald Trump. A wide range of Americans mostly view Brunson and other American detainees as political hostages,” said political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

“Any normalization of relations is out of the question as long as Brunson is detained,” he added. “If Brunson is not allowed to return home after Friday’s hearing, Trump may become impatient and impose more sanctions.”

The threat of further U.S. sanctions against Turkey’s embattled economy is fueling speculation the pastor will be freed.

“Yes, I expect him to be released. There is more and more expectation Turkey will do it,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“With America, I don’t expect relations will get worse,” he added. “On the contrary, there will be durable stability, and in the long run, Turkey-U.S. relations will continue as before. Turkey and America need one another.”

Despite the current crisis in relations, which extends to many other issues, the two NATO allies are continuing to cooperate on Syria.  Ankara recently said that cooperation has improved.

The growing expectation of Brunson’s release Friday, and with it, the removal of further U.S. sanctions, is seen as a reason why the Turkish lira has stabilized after weeks of steep declines.

However, some analysts remain cautious, citing the opaque nature of Turkey’s decision-making process. “There is a significant risk these expectations [Brunson’s release] won’t be met,” said chief economist Inan Demir of Nomura International.  “It’s extremely difficult to gain insight into the thinking of the chief policymakers, so there is room for negative surprises, definitely.”

“I would say it’s a coin flip, 50-50, whether Brunson is released,” analyst Yesilada said.

“I don’t see a clear approach from the ruling AKP camp that he is going to be released. Certainly, there is no unified approach preparing public opinion for his release,” Yesilada added.

Analysts suggest Brunson’s release is complicated by some Erdogan advisers who are warning him about appearing weak in the face of Washington’s pressure.

There are numerous other outstanding issues between the NATO allies. Next month the United States is set to impose severe sanctions on Turkey’s neighbor, Iran, and Washington is lobbying Ankara to comply with the measures.

“Ankara could be looking for a reciprocal gesture by Washington for Brunson’s release,” said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served in Washington. Trump has reportedly ruled out any concessions until Brunson is back in the United States. However, analysts point out Trump has so far not imposed any new measures against Turkey.

The Turkish state-owned Halkbank is facing a significant fine that could run into many billions of dollars for violating previous sanctions on Iran.  Analysts suggest the magnitude of the penalty could be linked to Brunson.

Analysts think a significant fine, along with the risk of further investigations and penalties against other Turkish banks, could deal a considerable blow to Turkey’s already-weakened financial system.

“It’s all like a house of cards.  Everything depends on whether Brunson is released,” said Yesilada.  “If he is released, it opens the door to resolving other issues [between Ankara and Washington]. The alternative is an escalation in tensions that could lead to all-out [sanctions] war, like the United States against Iran.”

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Zero Dark Thirty

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby Sabin » Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:08 pm

David Poland saw it and is ecstatic about it. He's a monkey little cheerleader but it's something to get worked up about, I think.
"If you are marching with white nationalists, you are by definition not a very nice person. If Malala Yousafzai had taken part in that rally, you'd have to say 'Okay, I guess Malala sucks now.'" ~ John Oliver

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby mlrg » Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:16 am

Maybe this should go into the Lez Misarables thread.... (and I'm 100% on Italiano's take on this)

I really liked The Hurt Locker and have great expectations for ZD30.

Early reviews are almost all raves and I think we will have a clear showdown for Best actress between Chastain and Lawrence.

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby ITALIANO » Mon Nov 26, 2012 5:05 am

anonymous1980 wrote:This is going way off topic but to answer some concerns raised about Les Miserables, here's a review of sorts from someone who knew nothing of Les Miz.

Of course that's only one person but still...

Yes, but honestly... Ok, one may not know much about the musical, but how on Earth can someone even vaguely into movies - and, theorically, into arts - say something like: From this day forward, when I hear the name Jean Valjean, I will know who that is. ??? If those who are enthusiastic about Les Miserables all share this kind of ignorance, if this movie is directed at THEM, it will certainly be a box-office hit and a big Oscar winner, but it will still be dreadful. Dreadful.

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby anonymous1980 » Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:29 am

This is going way off topic but to answer some concerns raised about Les Miserables, here's a review of sorts from someone who knew nothing of Les Miz.

Of course that's only one person but still...

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby Mister Tee » Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:19 am

The Original BJ wrote:(Nathaniel Rogers was probably always going to be predisposed toward it, but his level of ecstasy is noteworthy nonetheless)

It's worth remembering that Nathaniel had Nine as a likely best picture nominee AFTER he'd seen the movie. I agree, that his level of enthusiasm -- and that of many others -- suggest the film is definitely in the race. But I remain a bit dubious about people who went in expecting the film to be "awesome"/the best picture favorite, and emerged with that same take. Especially since the screening he and most of the others attended was apparently packed with a Broadway crowd similarly predisposed. (I happened to see Chicago back in '02 at a screening like that. People applauded like mad when Chita Rivera appeared on-screen -- a moment I'm guessing was not replicated at mukltiplexes across America)

I had meant myself to mention the abundance of former winners among the potential directing nominees. In addition to what you suggest (the difficulty the up and coming have in getting backing for serious films), I'd also note the directors' branch has a long-standing history of renominating former nominees/winners. An excellent long-term wager is to bet that, each year, the directing list will feature at least one previous nominee and at least one director not born in the US.

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby The Original BJ » Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:56 pm

Another reason to lament the expansion...

At this point, of the released films, you'd have to say Argo, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Life of Pi all looked VERY STRONG for Best Picture.

But in a slate of five Best Picture nominees, couldn't one of them conceivably be vulnerable? Assuming Zero Dark Thirty delivers as these reviews suggest, and Les Mis lives up to the hype (Nathaniel Rogers was probably always going to be predisposed toward it, but his level of ecstasy is noteworthy nonetheless), that would be too many very solid candidates for lineup. And that's even before a verdict has been leveled on The Hobbit, which, if reviews are any good, would make it a strong contender as well. Under the old rules, we could have had a real dog fight for those Best Picture spots; today, it's hard to imagine any of them missing in an expanded roster.

It's also worth noting the number of big-ticket entries this year from directors who already have Oscars -- Hooper, Bigelow, Lee, Jackson, Spielberg, throw in Affleck when you remember his screenwriting prize. Of the top candidates, only Russell isn't a winner, though he is a past nominee (as are outliers Anderson and Haneke, at least in Foreign Film.) It's highly possible we get a Director lineup this year full of past winners, with no one receiving their first nomination. I have to think that says something about how difficult it is in this era for younger directors to break through with serious movies, as more and more dramas have to be sold as prestige pictures from prestige directors.

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby Mister Tee » Sun Nov 25, 2012 5:58 pm

So, with this; with Argo, Lincoln and Life of Pi all scoring solidly with both critics and audiences; with Silver Linings Playbook well-reviewed and looking set for a lengthy mid-level playoff off; with the initial reactions to Les Miz maybe not entirely trustworthy (I'll wait to hear from some people who don't know the cast album by heart) but clearly indicating it's no Nine...with all that, can we say this year is the anti-2009 -- the year when almost all the year-end heavyweights came through rather than collapsed?

Throw in films like The Master/Beasts of the Southern Wild/The Sessions/maybe Amour to come, which are not going to end in that high-commercial realm, but have done well enough to contend in acting/writing/lone director...

If we had this field four years ago, would anyone but bloggers have given much of a damn about The Dark Knight? And would the best picture expansion to ten have ever happened?

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Re: Zero Dark Thirty - Reviews

Postby Mister Tee » Sun Nov 25, 2012 5:51 pm

Zero Dark Thirty
Pic rivets for most of its running time by focusing on how one female CIA agent with a far-out hunch was instrumental in bringing down America's most wanted fugitive.
By Peter Debruge
'Zero Dark Thirty'

Running a dense two hours thirty, before credits, "Zero Dark Thirty" reunites director Kathryn Bigelow with reporter-turned-scenarist Mark Boal in re-creating the hunt for Osama bin Laden, rejecting nearly every cliche one might expect from a Hollywood treatment of the subject. Wildly more ambitious than "The Hurt Locker," yet nowhere near so tripwire-tense, this procedure-driven, decade-spanning docudrama nevertheless rivets for most of its running time by focusing on how one female CIA agent with a far-out hunch was instrumental in bringing down America's most wanted fugitive. Spinning the pic as a thriller, Sony could beat the 9/11-movie curse when the Dec. 19 limited release goes wide in January.
Tactically held for release until after the presidential election had played out, "Zero Dark Thirty" arrives shrouded in nearly as much mystery as bin Laden's whereabouts before news broke that a team of Navy SEALs had successfully terminated his life on May 2, 2011. The title, military-speak for half past midnight, refers to the Al Qaeda leader's time of death, theoretically promising a flashy firsthand account of the raid itself. Why then does it star Jessica Chastain, skeptics wondered, not realizing that Bigelow and Boal had reduced the spectacular assault on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to the last half-hour in order to dedicate the rest to making history.

By forcing partisan politics into the wings (President George W. Bush goes entirely unseen, while auds' only glimpse of President Obama is during a 2008 campaign interview), the duo effectively give gender politics the whole stage: "Zero Dark Thirty" presents the highest-profile U.S. military success of our lifetime as the work of a single woman, "Maya," inspired by a real CIA analyst Boal discovered during his research and presented here as the only government official convinced that bin Laden wasn't "hiding in some cave" (Bush's words), but somewhere she could find him.

This being Hollywood, none but the biz's most stunning new star will do for such a task, though Chastain -- who aced no fewer than six supporting roles the previous year -- has the chops to embody the pic's iron-nerved protag, holding her own in the testosterone-thick world of CIA black sites and top-level Washington boardrooms. She first appears as witness to a military interrogation in which her colleague resorts to extreme measures to force information from an Al Qaeda money handler (Reda Kateb).

Compared with her wild-eyed cowboy of a colleague, Dan (Jason Clarke), Maya's body language suggests a little girl, clearly uncomfortable with the waterboarding and sexual humiliation that were common practice in the morally hazy rendition era. When Dan leaves the room for a moment, the desperate prisoner tries appealing to her humanity. She wavers for only a moment before firing back, "You can help yourself by being truthful."

Had this role been written for a man, whichever actor had filled it would have had thousands of prior performances to draw from in shaping his own. Chastain has almost zero. The closest model available is Jodie Foster's clenched-jaw turn in "The Silence of the Lambs," though Chastain plays Maya as the polar opposite of Clarice Starling: fragile on the outside, Kevlar-tough beneath the skin. After narrowly surviving one terrorist attack and seeing another promising lead literally blow up in a female colleague's face, Maya grits her teeth and swears, "I'm gonna smoke everybody involved in this op, and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."

Like Bigelow herself, Maya realizes that actions -- or action movies, in the director's case -- are the surest way to combat a tradition in which society doesn't believe women to be capable of getting the job done, and "Zero Dark Thirty" follows the character through every significant step along her 10-year journey to hold bin Laden accountable for 9/11. The film opens with audio of a terrified victim of the World Trade Center attack playing over a blackened screen and uses the emotional power that clip dredges up to fuel everything that follows.

The result is neither particularly entertaining nor especially artful, as the filmmakers take a lean, "All the President's Men"-style approach to dramatizing an investigation that took nearly a decade to bear fruit. But Boal has clearly constructed this as a more journalistic alternative to a generic gung-ho approach. The script's blood runs thick with observational detail and military jargon, skipping forward years at a time between scenes to focus on one of two types of incident.

The first concerns the slow but steady progress in Maya's investigation, which hinges on her conviction that any clues they can discover about bin Laden's courier will eventually lead them back to UBL himself (the military acronym for bin Laden). The second type involves an ongoing series of terrorist attacks that continue to claim lives as long as bin Laden goes free (never mind that they will not stop once he's dead). Bigelow keeps her audience on its toes by alternating between the two, allowing virtually no room for subplots or superfluous character baggage beyond what's needed for the task at hand.

With its handheld camerawork, naturalistic lighting and dialogue-drowning sound design (especially heavy on ambient helicopters), the film reflects the latest fashion in cinematic realism, compromised only slightly by the bare-minimum mood setting from Alexandre Desplat's Middle East-inflected score. Chastain's presence reminds us we're watching a movie, and yet, this slight degree of self-consciousness serves to reinforce the point that it's a woman pushing the process forward.

Maya may not be made of the same stuff as her male colleagues, but that's essential to the operation's success. While they equivocate and refuse to take action, she sticks to her guns and keeps track of the bureaucratic delays by counting the days in dry-erase marker on her superior's office window.

Finally, when the off-camera Obama gives her mission the green light, Maya stares down a pair of cocky Navy SEALs (Chris Pratt and Joel Edgerton) and tells them in no uncertain terms that she has no patience for their macho B.S. Only then does Bigelow offer auds what they paid to see: a re-construction of the raid on bin Laden's compound. Virtuoso as the sequence is to behold, it lacks both the detail of Matt Bissonnette's bestselling insider memoir "No Easy Day" and the visceral immediacy of this year's earlier SEAL-supported indie, "Act of Valor," as well as the satisfaction (also denied by the U.S. government) of seeing the dead bin Laden's face.

Dramatically speaking, the raid feels almost anti-climactic -- an epilogue to a personal crusade that ends the moment Maya is taken seriously. Still, considering how seldom female storytellers have been given a chance to operate on this scale, it's fair to let Bigelow overturn our narrative expectations to some degree. The ultra-professional result may be easier to respect than enjoy, but there's no denying its power, both as a credible reimagining of what went down and a welcome example of distaff resolve prevailing in an arena traditionally dominated by men.

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Zero Dark Thirty

Postby Reza » Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:09 am

Zero Dark Thirty: Film Review
12:02 AM PST 11/25/2012 by Todd McCarthy - The Hollywood Reporter
The Bottom Line
The story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden builds relentlessly to a powerful end result.

Kathryn Bigelow's and Mark Boal's "Hurt Locker" followup tells the story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and stars Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke.

Whether you call it well informed speculative history, docu-drama recreation or very stripped down suspense filmmaking, Zero Dark Thirty matches form and content to pretty terrific ends. A long-arc account of the search for Osama Bin Laden seen from the perspective of an almost insanely focused female CIA officer who never gives up the hunt until the prey ends up in a body bag, Kathryn Bigelow's and Mark Boal's heavily researched successor to The Hurt Locker will be tough for some viewers to take, not only for its early scenes of torture, including water boarding, but due to its denial of conventional emotionalism and non-gung ho approach to cathartic revenge-taking. Films touching on 9/11, such as United 93, World Trade Center, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, have proven commercially toxic, and while this one has a “happy” ending, its rigorous, unsparing approach will inspire genuine enthusiasm among the serious, hardcore film crowd more than with the wider public.

Even though it runs more than two-and-a-half hours, Zero Dark Thirty is so pared to essentials that even politics are eliminated; there's essentially no Bush or Cheney, no Iraq War, no Obama announcing the success of the May 2, 2011 raid on Bin Laden's in-plain-sight Pakistani compound. Similarly absent is any personal life for the single-minded heroine; when it's suggested at one point that she might want to have a fling, she colorfully replies that she's not a girl who does that sort of thing. The film does question whether she gives up some of her humanity to so selflessly dedicate herself to this sole professional aim, but seems to answer that, for some, this is what represents the essence of life; everything else is preparation and waiting.

Its military jargon title referring to a state of darkness as well as to the time of 12:30 a.m., Zero Dark Thirty opens with 90 seconds or so of black screen accompanied by a soundtrack collage of emergency phone calls from people trapped in the Twin Towers; no need for the familiar visuals here. Cut to two years later, when a captured nephew of Osama Bin Laden undergoes a prolonged series of brutal CIA interrogations that involve beatings, waterboarding, being bound by a dog collar and ropes and getting locked in a small wooden box. It's not the most inviting way to usher a viewer into a movie.

Then again, the hunt for Bin Laden was no picnic either but, rather, an enormously frustrating endeavor that untold amounts of money, manpower and strategic thinking couldn't bring to a successful close for nearly a decade. The man who had engineered the deaths of some 4000 people became a phantom, protected by forbidding geography, loyal followers and an already legendary aura.

For a while, as the film hopscotches through the years, Boal's script appears to be structured journalistically around a series of greatest terrorist hits, so to speak; we witness the deadly outrages of a 2004 attack in Saudi Arabia, the 2005 bus and tube bombing in London, the 2008 attack on the Karachi Marriott and, the following year, a shocking breach at a secured CIA base in Afghanistan.

Connecting the dots, however, is the dogged presence of Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young, flame-haired CIA officer who barely flinches when she first witnesses torture, is described as “a killer” by a colleague and, after a close call, allows that, “I believe I was spared so I could finish the job.” Boal, who dug as deeply into the classified aspects of the case as possible but seems to have been more committed to protecting the identities of those involved than even some participants have been, has said that there really is a “Maya,” although details have been fudged and altered to prevent identification.

Given no backstory, links to the world outside the CIA or any interest in smalltalk or other subjects, Maya occasionally has a drink to unwind but otherwise seems entirely incapable of shutting down her laser-like focus of her obsession. She becomes tolerably friendly with a gregarious, chatty female colleague (the ever-wonderful Jennifer Ehle) but most of the time is the only female in the room; she knows when to hold her tongue and her frustrations are legion, but she also finds her moments to assert herself and speak out to superiors when she suspects her contributions are being ignored, due either to her rank or because she's a woman.

Much as she did with the equally tightly wound protagonist of The Hurt Locker, Bigelow sends Maya through a mine field, this time consisting of bureaucratic trip-wires as well as potentially fatal traps. The director also successfully creates a double-clad environment that is both eerie and threatening, that of the supposedly safe and protected enclaves of the CIA that exist within the larger context of the Muslim world. From very early on, Maya seizes on the idea that the way to eventually track down Bin Laden is to identify and follow his couriers, as they will inevitably one day reveal where the Al-Qaeda leader is hiding.
As we know, she's right, but it takes years for the tactic to pay off. Even once she and her cohorts track down the long-elusive Abu Ahmad, following his vehicle through the chaotic streets of Rawalpindi is a nightmare. But after a succession of road blocks, setbacks and dead ends, Maya finally convinces herself that Bin Laden is holed up in the house in Abbottabad, whereupon her convictions ascend to ladder of command to the point where the CIA director (James Gandolfini) braces himself to enter the Oval Office and recommend a stealth raid to the president.

Bigelow and Boal play a long game, moving from the brutal opening through impressively detailed but not always compelling vignettes of the CIA at work to interludes in which Maya's ferocious dedication begins to possibly play dividends and finally to the climactic forty minutes, which lay out with extraordinary detail and precision the almost improbably successful operation that begins at Area 51 in Nevada, where we first see the amazing stealth helicopters ideally designed for such a mission, and ends with Maya identifying the body that's brought back.

In between is an exceptionally riveting sequence done with no sense of rah-rah patriotic fervor but, rather, tremendous appreciation for the nervy way top professionals carry off a very risky job of work; Howard Hawks would have been impressed. Slipping low through mountain passes in darkness from Afghanistan to Pakistan with rotor noise muffled by special equipment, the two choppers drop off their Navy SEALs, one then crashes in the yard but, remarkably, the noise seems not to arouse any locals just yet.

The men, all wearing helmets that bizarrely feature four night vision lenses protruding from the front, proceed into the sealed up house, breaking down doors and exploding locks as they go. Instead of rushing the place, as per usual cinematic practice, they move slowly and cautiously, room by room, killing the messenger, among others, and encountering several women and many children as they go. The tall man remains elusive but there are still more doors to open. Still, with each minute, the danger of exposure and failure increases—locals from the neighborhood are beginning to head toward the house—and they still haven't found their prize. Until, finally, they do.

Because of the black-and-green, video-like quality of the night vision imagery, these momentous events possess the pictorial quality of low-budget Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity thrillers, which merely contributes further to their weirdness. And because of the deliberate pace at which the men make their way through the house, an unsettling airlessness sets in, a feeling of being suspended in time that's unlike any equivalent climactic action sequence that comes to mind.

But quite apart from its historical significance, at least the scene is here to provide a welcome catharsis, as at one time would not have been the case. The filmmakers initially embarked on this project before the Bin Laden raid took place, which would obviously have resulted in an entirely different sort of film, dramatically and philosophically; without a resolution, it could hardly have helped from being an existential tale of quite substantial dimensions.

As it has emerged instead, it could well be the most impressive film Bigelow has made, as well as possibly her most personal, as one keenly feels the drive of the filmmaker channeled through the intensity of Maya's character. The film's power steadily and relentlessly builds over its long course, to a point that is terrifically imposing and unshakable.

Chastain carries the film in a way she's never been asked to do before. Denied the opportunity to provide psychological and emotional details for Maya, she nonetheless creates a character that proves indelible and deeply felt. The entire cast works in a realistic vein to fine effect.
Similarly, all the technical contributions are put at the service of full verisimilitude. Locations in Jordan and India fill in beautifully for Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Opens: December 19 (limited), January 11 (wide) (Sony)
Production: Columbia Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, First Light, Mark Boal Productions
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Callan Mulvey, Harold Perrineau, Stephen Dillane
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenwriter: Mark Boal
Producers: Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison
Executive producers: Colin Wilson, Greg Shapiro, Ted Schipper
Director of photography: Greig Fraser
Production designer: Jeremy Hindle
Costume designer: George L. Little
Editors: Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg
Music: Alexandre Desplat
R rating, 157 minutes

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text:
Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Letter to the Editor, re: VFM

This was sent to us as an anonymous letter to the editor, and we would like to run it as continued discourse on the VFM:

How to Drink the VFM's Milkshake
name withheld upon request

The VFM contest would have very easy to hack this year. The main problem with VFM is that it is extremely easy to enter. For a measly $150 and five minutes filling out a form, any publication can appear on the ballot. The entry fee was raised from $100 to $150 this year as an attempt to filter out the 'noise'. As Matt Naylor put it, "the idea is to limit the number in the contest; otherwise it would collapse under its own weight." Great idea Matt! Too bad you went about it
entirely the wrong way. The voter media website explains the choice of using an entry fee: "It's better to charge an entry fee than to require media entrants to collect signatures, because an entry fee has far lower social cost." That last part seems to about sum it up: an entry fee has a low social cost. With a $2000 cash prize on the line, an entry fee with a low social cost and a high return on investment, it is almost like the contest was inviting fly-by night publications to enter just for the money. Matt Naylor's mistake was focusing on the number of entrants and not the quality of the publications.

So, how could one hack the contest to assure themselves the top prize. The easiest way would be to pull a James Green. James Green, a relatively unknown, ran for mayor of Vancouver in the 2005 civic elections. He received an impressive 4,273 votes, but many think that the majority of James' votes were actually intended for the similarly named and far more well known candidate, Jim Green. Voters, when scanning the ballot, just voted for the first J. Green they saw. So if
one were to enter the contest with a name similar to another a publication, it can be reasonably assumed that some of the voters would mistakenly vote for it. So which publication's name would one mimic to generate the most accidental votes? It might be tempting to riff off the The Underground, the top finisher from last year, but as that publication is likely to enter the contest, one would more likely split the vote than win the prize. Luckily for the would-be hacker, the most well known newspaper on campus, The Ubyssey, doesn't enter the competition. Mark Latham did something called a "multifactor analysis" of last years results, and concluded that had The Ubyssey entered it would have won by a landslide. And thus, The Ubussy is

So unless the election code is changed next year, I am going to drink the VFM's milkshake. I'LL DRINK IT UP!


text:
Thursday, 26 June 2014

Re: Obsolete packages request for removal

Le 25/06/2014 20:32, Michael Webster a écrit :
these very old, obsolete, and unsupported packages are still available in Ubuntu.

The current 2.2 versions from Debian experimental just got synced to utopic, hopefully that should resolve the concerns there. Let us know if that's still a problem for you

Sebastien Bacher


text:
Sunday, February 25, 2018

Neil Keenan Update: The Asian Insider Returns

Neil Keenan

Neil Keenan Update:
The Asian Insider Returns

“I would like to take the opportunity to proffer my eager observations with respect to the preceding two-plus years regarding the ongoing contributions that have been received here in the Eastern hemisphere at the behest of Neil Keenan and the Keenan Group.

I understand Mr. Keenan has befallen ongoing health challenges (mostly due to repeated attacks on his person), but in spite of this, the endeavors of this extraordinary man and his prodigious team bring support to Asia that is truly inspiring.

(It should be noted that Mr. Keenan’s ongoing health issues are due to the repeated attacks upon him. It is clear now that he has survived, for the most part, due to the miraculous benefits of the machine that he calls the Healing Computer; which is demonstrably adept in diagnosing and facilitating the effective treatment of a vast array of ailments, as I see many around the world are increasingly reporting).

For some time this outstanding group brought us daily anticipation and excitement. Many of those that were following developments kept their electronic devices and social media pages at close quarters for updates as to what the Keenan Group was about to undertake next. To be sure, Neil Keenan was then and remains now a folk hero to many of us here.

At times he has been a one man riot squad, taking care of whatever threats potentially undermine or threaten Asia. His commitment to the people of Asia has never ceased and continues in an unwavering manner to this day.

It would be too time-consuming to list the many things Neil Keenan and his “Group K” have already done to assist Asia. So this message is going to be a brief one; as the latest news traveling on the grapevine relays that Neil is preparing to return here shortly to complete what only he could have started.

On many occasions, Mr. Keenan’s left hand and right hand appear to be both engaged – albeit in entirely different activities; such that nobody has a chance to keep abreast of his activities, let alone surmise what is going to eventuate from them. His sagacity has been proven in many ways. One day in the future his story will be told in a deserving fashion.

For now, suffice it to say that if given the financial resources equivalent to that of a small nation, Neil Keenan would oversee the planet in ways that improve the lives of all of humanity while facilitating the foundations of a promising future – with the release and proliferation of new technologies that until recently have been maliciously suppressed by the greedy, so-called ‘elite.’

Rumor has it that the Elders throughout Asia are waiting for Mr. Keenan’s reappearance. I personally know there are four or five individuals who are longing to be able to count down the days.

Mr. Keenan continues to develop alliances with many new names and faces over here in Asia, people who are willing to open their vaults and show him what we have that may be implemented for prosperity and to assist not just Indonesia but the globe in its entirety.

Over the years Mr. Keenan has learnt a great deal in building his many previous successful business ventures, and he is now going to apply this knowledge to numerous pioneering efforts. Neil Keenan is absolutely a trail-blazer who “thinks outside of the square” in effectuating what would be unthinkable accomplishments to lesser minds.

For too many years smaller minds in the Western world believed they could continue to steal Assets from the Global Accounts with impunity. The so-called ‘elite’ whom regarded those outside their circles as “little men” are destined to discover that the high esteem in which they held themselves – was nothing but a frivolous delusion.

The machinations and thievery practiced up until now by the tyrants of the Western world, dear friends, are about to be quashed in a multitude of ways. I will not list these methods for reasons of confidentiality, but I can wholeheartedly assure you that justice will be done.

From my perspective in knowing Mr. Keenan as I do, he requires those of us in Asia to support and assist him in whichever ways that we may be able to.

As the result of upcoming actions that are to be taken, we are going to be looking at a phenomenally productive boom for not only our people here but all of the peoples of the world. Whilst speaking with Neil Keenan one evening recently, he shared some insight in terms of the surprises held in store for us, upon his forthcoming return to Asia.

I believe Mr. Keenan is eager to move despite his recent health issues (visited upon him by those who continue with attempts to thwart his mission), along with the tragic kidnapping of his dear friend three months ago; who was closer to him than anyone.

Mr. Keenan continues to persist in seeking her recovery, and he hopes to have this realized in the short term. Neil now has excellent professional assistance by way of specialists whose expertise in tracking allows him to move on to the pressing business at hand in Asia.

And so you would do well to ready yourselves for Neil Keenan and the Keenan Group – Chapter Two; and beyond.

Please make haste, Mr. Keenan, we all need the fruits that will be borne of your efforts; and far more than the vast majority are aware.

Group K, physically carry him if that is what is required. In actuality he is vastly more than just one person; he is the answer.

The Asian Insider”

Thanks to Neil Keenan at:

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text:
03 June, 2017

The article was originally published at the New Eastern Europe by Naphtali Rivkin, a research fellow with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington DC, and a graduate candidate in International Relations at the University of Cambridge.

The assassination of Boris Nemtsov in front of the Kremlin on February 27th 2015 marked the first time since the execution of Lavrentiy Beria in 1953 that a viable contender for Russian power was summarily eliminated. By the time Brezhnev forcibly ousted Khrushchev from power in 1964, the Soviet elite had tacitly agreed that power struggles between them would not result in murder; Khrushchev died eight years later, with a pension. Since 1953, the Russian political elite who came to power through illiberal and undemocratic means did not generally purge the allies of their predecessors for fear that the same would be done to them if and when they were succeeded. Perhaps, whoever ordered the assassination of Boris Nemtsov harbours no such fears.

Nemtsov’s murder is emblematic and symptomatic of an increasingly bold authoritarianism in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Russia has never been a democracy, but for a fleeting generation, its governing system was in a democratising flux. The world held its breath while it searched for signs of a democratic pulse in post-Soviet Russia and exhaled resignedly when the Russian regime repeatedly and successfully repressed attempts at democratisation. Most recently, Russian democracy hinged on the faith and action of brave activists like Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Kara-Murza. But Nemtsov is dead, Kara-Murza has survived two attempted attacks on his life and most of the Russian populace does not seem to care enough to do anything about it. This begs the question: is democracy possible in Russia at all?

Some say: no. The idea that Russians do not want democracy has reached American shores before. Richard Pipes, one of the US’s most noted historians on Russia and the USSR, presents one perspective on the desire for democracy in Russia when he writes,

“Although actions undertaken by Putin and his associates play a large part, there is a good deal of evidence that the antidemocratic, antilibertarian actions of the current administration are not being inflicted on the Russian people but are actually supported by them. This evidence also indicates that no more than one Russian in ten cares about democratic liberties and civil rights.”

Cynical as Pipes may sound, he is not without parallel in the Russian-speaking world. Svetlana Alexievich writes in Second-Hand Time that “Russians don’t understand freedom, they need the Cossack and the whip.” Reading the interviews of factory labourers and Politburo members from the early 1990s, for which Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, one gets the sense that the Russian people did not want, or at least, were not ready for, democracy.

What is democracy?

Part of the problem that becomes apparent even in the quotes above is that democracy has accumulated too many colloquial and scholarly definitions to be precise. This ambiguity has allowed tyrants to abuse the term, and dilettantish academics to scoff at anything short of utopia. Democracy can mean so many things that who’s to say if Russians do not have it already?

The minimal procedural definition of a democracy is a state that holds elections, but this seems inadequate because it could also define some repressive authoritarian regimes that permit elections. On the other hand, attributing to democracy liberalism, free markets, constitutionalism and respect for human rights generally belies the “many different colours” of democracy that exist after 1945, as President Kennedy put it in his famous Berlin Wall address. Besides, this sort of broad definition of American-style democracy “with all the fixins’” will not sit well with Russian society because it smacks of American nation building. There is not, and should not be, a little American inside every Russian; we should be searching for a definition for democracy that is endogenous to Russia and stimulates the noblest traditions of that country and people.

In order to declutter modern definitions of democracy, it is best to return to classic texts. In his 1966 book The Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Barrington Moore defines democratisation “as a long and certainly incomplete struggle to do three closely related things: to check arbitrary rulers, to replace arbitrary rules with just and rational ones, and to obtain a share for the underlying population in the making of rules.” In other words, we can say that democracy is a check on the arbitrary accumulation and use of power. It is a way to make politics—i.e. the practice of governance and the art of living within society—predictable, consensual, and just. Free markets and liberal values are a welcome but unnecessary bonus.

With this definition in mind, we can revisit the question at hand: is democracy possible in Russia? It is fitting that the most salient democratic movement in Putin’s era uses the language of anti-corruption; the corruption and graft of the Russian regime is the epitome of arbitrary rule. However, while anti-corruption protests organised by Alexei Navalny—the largest in size since the anti-Putin protests in 2011—should be commended in their own right, they do not inspire much hope for democratisation in Russia. During one of the many protests in Russia on March 26th 2017, a fifth-grader by the name of Gleb Tokmakov took the podium in the city of Tomsk. In the finest tradition of Russian political pulpitry, he challenged the crowd and the status quo:

“Someone said: ‘The rule is of millions, not of millionaires.’ Yes, this is a good slogan. I agree with it. But in a huge country, the rule of the people is impossible. Everyone wants something of his own. Everyone wants something of his own. Accordingly, it does not matter who is in power: whether it is Navalny or Putin…”

The Russian chorus behind the young Tokmakov shouts “it is important!” who is in power. Tokmakov is not deterred. He answers,

“Well, no, it is not important. The important thing is to change the system of power itself, [to change] the education system, [to change] the healthcare system. I study at school and I am surprised that schools are so politicised. At school, if you do not draw some picture about our government, they could give you [a low grade]! It should not be this way.”

The lone Tokmakov demands a change that reaches to the very limits of Russian vlast—that mystical and spiritual basis of Russian power. But the Russian crowd that shouted down Tokmakov did not care about changing the system. Like many who supported Gorbachev, Yeltsin, or Putin, they did not seem to mind having a tsar; they seemed to just want the right tsar.

How democracy was repressed in Russia

The sorry state of Russian democracy today is not entirely the fault of the Russian people. Democracy is not inevitable and requires human effort and desire, which Russians have shown in spades since the collapse of the USSR, even if some of that effort has been misguided and some of that desire has been misplaced. But even when people want democracy, democratisation can be thwarted by repression. Throughout the Russian regime’s metamorphoses since 1985, it has consistently repressed, or attempted to repress, democratisation, and the history of these repressions goes a long way toward explaining why democracy never took hold in Russia.

Though Yeltsin was the first ever freely-elected ruler of Russia, he forged a Russia “in which formal democratic institutions exist and are widely viewed as the primary means of gaining power, but in which incumbents’ abuse of the state places them at a significant advantage vis-à-vis their opponents. […] Competition is thus real but unfair.” Richard Sakwa calls the early Yeltsin years “phoney democracy” because Yeltsin ruled without a formal constitution—largely by popular mandate substantiated by the April 1993 referendum—dismissed parliament on September 21th 1993 and ordered the military to fire on dejected parliamentary supporters, killing 146 in the Moscow fighting of October 1993.

Yeltsin’s decision to shell the Russian parliament in response to Soviet and communist party intransigence may have seemed appropriate to Westerners fearing a communist backlash or rampant instability around the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. However, neither the president nor the parliament acted for the sake of democracy at the time. In retrospect, it is clear that the constitutional crisis was a clash between two undemocratic parties vying for power in Russia. Both the decision to rebel against the president and the decision to use force against the parliament reflected the arbitrary use of power—devoid of real legal basis or the consent of the governed—that distinguishes authoritarian regimes from democracies.

The second part of Yeltsin’s tenure was marked by a free but unfair 1996 presidential election victory that is typical of hybrid regimes. Yeltsin’s political allies owned and manipulated an overwhelming majority of the Russian media. With Russian state funds and a sigh of relief from the West, Yeltsin defeated the communist candidate Gennady Zyuganov. However, by co-opting a powerful business elite to his aid, Yeltsin’s regime had inadvertently created what we now call the Russian oligarchs, who contributed to the repression of democracy in Russia in their own way. Orwell Prize winner Arkady Ostrovsky writes in The Invention of Russia about the oligarchs:

“Oligarchs created their own parallel infrastructure which substituted for a state. [Vladimir] Gusinsky’s holding, called Media Most, comprised a small army, a bank, a foreign service, his own newspaper, radio and a television channel. […] He was driving around Moscow in a cortege of cars with blue flashing lights, using a lane reserved for senior state officials.”

Oligarchs like Gusinsky relied on off-the-record government loans, which they used to bid on privatising state-owned enterprises and then ran Yeltsin’s campaign in 1996 through the media holding companies they had created.

In terms of democratisation and repression, the oligarchs presented a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they encouraged the state to privatise its collective assets in a nod toward democracy, but on the other hand, the state sold those assets to political allies preferentially, without giving a majority of Russian people access to the bidding. Moreover, while it might seem like the Yeltsin years were an unparalleled boon for private and free media in Russia, Ostrovsky has a slightly different take.

“For a second, Russia seemed almost like a normal country where the ability to criticize and ridicule politicians is a sign of a healthy democracy. Yet, there was one fundamental problem. In contrast to ‘normal’ countries where freedom of expression is guaranteed by institutions such as parliament, civil society, the media itself and, above all, by the consensus of the population, in Russia freedom of speech rested on the goodwill of just one man.”

That man was the president, who seemed to tolerate abusive media so long as, on net, his polls kept rising ahead of the 1996 elections. Yeltsin did not fire on the free market or the free media like he fired on the parliament, but that does not necessarily matter when it comes to democratisation. Yeltsin repressed democracy by consciously creating an inaccessible and opaque regime that rewarded corruption and rested on his grace alone instead of a regime built on the law, institutions, and civil society that could check the arbitrary accumulation and use of power.

Putin’s quest for stability

In order to free himself from the pressure that his predecessors faced from both the top and the bottom of the political spectrum, Yeltsin’s successor, Vladimir Putin, has repressed democracy in three principle ways: eliminating the oligarchs and nationalising their assets, curbing freedom of expression in public and private, and cracking down on civil society. These three repressions have helped make Putin’s reign so stable, that he was able to step down from president to prime minister for four years and still return to the presidency.

The Russian people seemed overwhelmingly to support Putin’s repression of oligarchs. An independent Levada Center poll in June 2006 found that 85 per cent of Russians supported Russia’s renationalisation of the oil and gas industry, and 65 per cent of Russians favoured the nationalisation of other industries that were previously in private hands, like Gusinsky’s media holdings. But popularity is not democracy, because an opinion poll does not provide a viable, predictable and binding rational rule that inhibits arbitrary rulers from arbitrarily wielding power. While curbing the extra-legal privileges of the oligarchs could have been a check on the arbitrary accumulation of power by corrupt business elites, the methods Putin used represented the regime’s own arbitrary use of power and abuse of the rules.

For example, NTV owner and oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky was repeatedly arrested and harassed by state officials with court orders until he sold his Media Most holding company to the state under duress. Thusly, Putin deftly nationalised the media and fleeced the oligarchs by abusing the legal system. “There should be patriotically minded people at the head of state information resources,” Putin told reporters in 2013—as much an excuse for nationalising most of the mainstream media as it was a foreshadow of the forthcoming information censorship.

Nataliya Rostova, an independent Russian journalist and visiting professor of journalism at Berkeley, explains how information is controlled in Putin’s Russia, significantly repressing the relative freedom enjoyed by oligarch-owned media companies during the Yeltsin years.

“The editors and directors [of state-owned media companies] have so-called weekly meetings with the presidential administration to talk about the upcoming events, what will be significant in the next week, what the administration wants to cover. Additionally, media outlets are dependent on state funding and the TV advertising market is almost monopolized as well.”

Free media is a vital tool with which to check arbitrary rulers and to obtain a share for the population in the making of rational rules. Putin represses the tools of democratisation in order to repress democracy without necessarily needing to fire a shot.

The Putin regime still does resort to violence and physical repression, but in a strategic and targeted way that seems a far cry from Yeltsin shelling the parliament. The regime violently repressed protests against Putin’s return to the presidency in the winter of 2011-2012, and then passed a law to levy heavy fines against future protesters. The repression of protesters is symptomatic of a broader crackdown on civil society in Putin’s Russia. Another law passed in 2012 blacklisted and eventually shuttered Russian NGOs that continued to accept foreign funding. Despite what the murder of Boris Nemtsov might suggest, Putin curbs civil society and public protest by passing laws through parliament because he must still placate the elite by using state and party mechanisms, though, to quote Communist Party parliamentarian Vadim Solovyov, “the activities of the Duma look like a clown show and the fifth wheel of executive power.” Nevertheless, Putin has to construct a semblance of legal-rational order to repress Russia.

The secret to Putin’s authoritarian repression of democracy in Russia is that he rarely needs to resort to bloodshed and arrests because he has carefully cultivated a regime that thwarts collective action and discourages checks on his power. His is savvier repression than the dramatic coup attempt during Gorbachev’s post-totalitarianism, and a more centralised autocratic repression than the institutionalised cronyism that characterised Yeltsin’s hybrid regime.

By atomising civil society and controlling information, Putin reduces the costs of repression. To that end, a package of bills known as Yarovaya’s Laws took effect in 2017, requiring all Internet service providers to give the Russian government access to all their users’ information. China has also agreed to share its robust Internet monitoring software with Russia, which the Chinese regime uses“to reduce the probability of collective action by clipping social ties whenever any collective movements are in evidence or expected.” Once thought to be a tool for democratisation, the Internet has in fact reduced the cost and increased the effectiveness of authoritarian repression in Russia. If the March 2017 anti-corruption protests are any indicator, hope for democratisation in Russia rests in old-fashioned physical collective action that demands an end to the arbitrary accumulation and use of power.

What is to be done?

It is not totally correct to say that communism is the only reason for the lack of democracy in Russia. In fact, there are aspects of Russian society that allowed for Russia to become the first communist country in history and have inhibited its democratisation since then. Furthermore, many of Russia’s post-communist neighbours have found their democratic way while Russia has regressed.

One of the best explanations I have ever heard for why post-Soviet Russian society has such a difficult time finding its democratic footing comes from Juris Rubenis, who helped Latvia move toward democracy in the late hours of the Soviet occupation. “It is impossible to properly utilize external, political freedom if people do not have enough internal freedom,” he says.

“A person thinking in totalitarian clichés sees the world and says, ‘this is wrong!  But there is one right solution, and the solution to the thing that’s wrong is really quite simple. So let’s change the wrong approach to the only right approach.  Couldn’t be simpler!’  No, no, no. Real internal freedom is respecting the internal freedom of others… it’s actually so complicated and difficult.”

Rubenis, a Lutheran priest and one of the most influential anti-Soviet dissidents of the 1980s, lives in an isolated log cabin on Latvia’s northwest Baltic coast. These days, he dedicates his time to teaching ordinary people meditative practices and Lutheran thought in order to help them rid their brains of the totalitarian clichés imprinted by Soviet communism. Perhaps a forward-looking democratisation process in Russia begins with civil society that educates on individual sanctity without compromising on the attribute of tolerance. Only after that can Russian society begin to demand the same from its government


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