Like the layers in an archaeological excavation

I saw this photograph on a Chinese Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaobo/ The scene is in Shanghai. I like it because of the layered effect - the roadside kiosk, the traditional-style red brick building, the modern structure, the soaring tower off to the left. It's like the layers in an archaeological excavation (Kathleen Kenyon's tel at Jericho perhaps). Also interesting is the use of the word "NEW" in the hoarding. It leaps out at you. And I didn't realise that the English language is so widely understood in major cities in China that English words are used in advertising. Most fascinating are the people. Who are those people on scooters? Who are those people walking on the pavement (and will they buy anything from the kiosk)? What are their lives like? Where are they going? What is just round that corner...

In Beijing

One of the amateur photographers on Flickr I like to follow is Gong Shore in Beijing (although not from there originally).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27708011@N04/

This picture is typical of the glimpses you get into ordinary life in China.

I like the youthfulness, the sense of optimism, the bustle.

No idea what the text 可不可以，你就恰好喜欢我这个样子，不改动我一寸，我也不改动你一尺。 says. I've tried putting it into an auto-translate but it doesn't translate logically. Also, why is the central figure wearing a red armband?

Article by Tony Halpin in The Times

Interesting article by Tony Halpin in The Times today about the "gulag" penal colony of Krasnokamensk in Siberia. Only eight paragraphs, but Tony Halpin effectively conjures up the Solzhenitsyn atmosphere of the place. Astonishing that the prison camp was constructed as recently as the 1960s.

It takes nineteen hours to get there from Moscow.



A search for Krasnokamensk on Flickr produces this grim institutional picture ominously called "The Place". No idea if this is the gulag but it looks the part. It was taken by a brilliant photographer with the kafkaesque name of Michael Z.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_z/

How much money can we make

In The Guardian today Mark Lawson said that television coverage of this week's royal engagement was greater than coverage of the 1981 royal engagement. There was a disappointed air to the piece, as if Mark Lawson had been hoping that the coverage would prove to have been less (and thus indicate a decline of interest in the British monarchy). No doubt a percentage of the coverage has been sychophantic, with no doubt much more sychophancy to follow, but there are some interesting comparisons between now and the 1981 event.

In 1981 both Russia and China were closed societies, totalitarian states subscribing to communist ideologies. The 1981 Royal Wedding barely registered in the vast territories that comprise those countries. But today the position is different.

The ceremony next year is likely to be one of the world's biggest broadcast media events (perhaps the biggest yet seen) with various commentators equating it to the Olympics or the World Cup in terms of media attention and advertising opportunities.

How far will it penetrate into the national consciousness of both Russia and China, with their huge populations? Will they remain true to their communist heritage and be completely uninterested? Or is the event sufficiently exotic and strange to attract their attention?

Tristram Hunt (historian and now a Labour MP) on Newsnight condemned the 1981 event as "imperial". There are arguments in favour of a cheaper, more austere ceremony. But in terms of newly-consumerised world poulations, is there an appetite for imperial performances? (the Beijing Olympics can be put in this category).



Above: China Daily, an official publication of the Chinese government, covered the royal engagement on their website. Admittedly this is the English-language version, but the Chinese never do anything without a reason. The Chinese do not kow-tow to anyone, so why are they doing this?

It's not as if they need United Kingdom support for anything.



Above: Pravda On-line (Pravda!) is covering the royal engagement in a series of extremely sympathetic articles. Of course, Pravda On-line is not the same as the old communist Pravda, but it still has a big following. One article even described the British monarch as "the pinnacle of excellence".

The question is: how much of this media attention is going to translate into positive responses towards British manufactured goods and services (and how much money can we make from it).

Felipe Messias, Belo Horizonte

Theatrical production in the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil (the photograph manages to capture the drama of dramatic productions, the theatrical exaggeration of the theatre). The state of Minas Gerais is full of superlatives - longest rivers, highest mountains, deepest caverns. The poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade was born in Minas Gerais:

I wish I had the courage
To speak of this secret
To tell the world
About this love
Isn't lack of wanting
Isn't lack of desire
You are my wanting
My greatest desire
I wish I could speak loud about
This healthy madness

http://www.flickr.com/photos/felipemessiass/5122330220/

Unguarded snapshots

I'm not really sure where this new project is leading, but we are continually told that the BRIC countries are going to have a big impact upon our lives. So I have a vague feeling that I ought to make an effort to find out about these places / peoples / political philosophies. But how do you do that?

In one sense you could just stay in London and the world will come to you. And if anyone from a BRIC country wants to meet me for a coffee in London just send me an e-mail (andrewamesbury@live.co.uk). But how much will that tell us (for instance, the minority of Americans who make the effort to come to Europe are not at all representative of the general American population).

You could physically visit the countries, but I don't have the time, and don't really have the money, and how much do you learn about a country from a superficial trip?

Therefore I have started dipping into flickr, looking at unguarded snapshots.



Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heder/

A car on a dusty road. Tropical vegetation. Low sun - is this the swift twilight of the tropics?

I think this is in Acre in north-west Brazil. The capital is Rio Branco. The Amazon rainforest covers all of the state.



Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kavabunga/4439113776/

I love this photograph - the simple colours, the natural light, the sense of ennui.

It is taken in Moscow, but the photographer comes from Perm in the federal region of Perm Krai on the western European plain. The city is first mentioned in the 12th century chronicle Povest vremennykh let. In Pasternack's Dr Zhivago Perm is fictionalised as the city of Yuriatin (Юрятин).

The photographer has also travelled in Adygeya (in the Caucasus). It's a land of forests and mountains. There is a "national epic" - the Nart of Adygei

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Adygea



Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirankgone/4399811967/

A scene in Andhra Pradesh in the south east of India. The man in the foreground looks as implacable and immoveable as the stones around him. His scarf seems to match the shirt of his colleague.

Andhra Pradesh includes the beautiful city of Hyderabad. Telugu is the official language. The culture has produced many notable poets including Gunturu Seshendra Sarma.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunturu_Seshendra_Sarma



Above: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaobo/5109823103/

The photograph was taken at the Shanghai Expo but the photographer comes from Anhui (安徽). I like the ultramodern look to this urban view - they could be in the tube station at Westminster. I also like the expression of quiet contemplation on face of the girl on the left.

Anhui (安徽) is a state in eastern China. The Yangtze river runs through it. Mount Huangshan (first celebrated by the poet Li Bai) is a World Heritage Site.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Huangshan