Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / 2017 / Archives for September 2017

Archives for September 2017

Amit Shah deposes in favour of Maya Kodnani in 2002 case

by

(AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Ahmedabad: BJP President Amit Shah appeared before a special Sessions Court here on Monday in the 2002 Naroda Gam case in which 11 persons were killed and said the key accused and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani was with him when the crime took place.

Shah was summoned by the court after Kodnani claimed to have failed to get the BJP chief to depose as a witness in her favour despite repeated attempts. She submitted that she was unable to find Amit Shah or his address to issue the summons.

As many as 14 witnesses have deposed and 13 have been examined. She is among the 82 accused in the case.

The incident occurred on February 28, 2002, a day after a coach of the Sabarmati Express train was set on fire at the Godhra railway station leaving 57 Hindus dead.

Naroda Gam is close to Naroda Patiya where 97 Muslims were killed on the same day in which Kodnani was convicted in 2012 for life imprisonment.

Deposing in the court of Justice P.D. Desai on Monday, Amit Shah stated that Kodnani was with him in the Assembly and later at the Civil Hospital at Sola where the bodies of the Godhra train victims were brought.

Shah said he had gone to the Sola Civil Hospital since it fell under his constituency.

Speaking in defence of the former minister, Amit Shah submitted to the court in Gujarati: “Mayaben Kodnani was not at Naroda Gam but at the State Assembly at 8.30 am. From 9.30 a.m. to 9.45 a.m., I was at the Civil Hospital and I met Maya Kodnani there.”

He added that Kodnani was consoling families of those killed in the Godhra attack when he reached there.

Kodnani, who was a minister in 2002 in the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, wants to prove that on the day of the Naroda Gam killings she was not at the site of the crime.

(IANS)

An appeal to Share Holders of Amanath Bank to Vote for a new group of Directors

by

To make Amanath co-operative Bank regain its past glory of being a strong, vibrant community Bank and attain pride of place in the banking sector, it’s imperative that a capable and cohesive team is elected to manage the bank.

The following members who have come together as a team are quite capable and qualified o be the directors of the bank. Please cast your valuable vote in favour of our team and give us an opportunity to usher in a new beginning in the progress of the bank.

Myanmar uses scorched earth tactics in Rakhine: report

by

Amnesty accuses Myanmar army of carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya, as nearly 400,000 flee to Bangladesh.

by Al Jazeera

Security forces and vigilante mobs in Myanmar are carrying out a scorched-earth policy in the majority-Muslim region of Rakhine State, burning down entire Rohingya villages and shooting at people as they try to flee, Amnesty International has said.

According to new satellite imagery, fire-detection data, photographs and videos from the ground, the human rights group said on Thursday that there were at least 80 large-scale fires in inhabited areas across northern Rakhine State since 25 August.

“The evidence is irrefutable – the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine State ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar,” said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director.

“Make no mistake: this is ethnic cleansing.”

At least 370,000 Rohingya are estimated to have fled from Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh after fighters from the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA) attacked police posts, sparking a major military backlash.

Myanmar’s government said on Wednesday that nearly 40 percent of Rohingya villages had been targeted by the army in so-called “clearance operations,” with 176 out of 471 villages empty of people, and an additional 34 villages “partially abandoned.”

According to the report, Rohingya said that soldiers, police and vigilante groups would sometimes encircle a village and fire into the air before entering, but would often just storm in and start firing in all directions.

“When the military came, they started shooting at people who got very scared and started running. I saw the military shoot many people and kill two young boys. They used weapons to burn our houses,” one survivor said.

“There used to be 900 houses in our village; now only 80 are left. There is no one left to even bury the bodies.”

Amnesty said it was able to corroborate the burning by analysing photographs taken from across the Naf River in Bangladesh, showing huge pillars of smoke rising inside Myanmar.

The international rights organisation said that in some areas, local authorities warned villages in advance that their homes would be burned, a clear indication that the attacks were both deliberate and planned.

One witness from Pan Kyiang village in Rathedaung township described how in the early morning of September 4, the military came with the village administrator: “He said by 10am today we had better leave since everything would be set on fire.”

As his family was packing up their belongings, he saw what he described as a ‘ball of fire’ hitting his house, at which point they fled in panic.

Villagers who hid in a nearby paddy field witnessed soldiers burning houses using what appears to be rocket launchers.

Amnesty said the exact number of fires and extent of property destruction could be much higher, as cloud cover during the monsoon season has made it difficult for satellites to pick up all burnings.

Security has deteriorated sharply in Rakhine since Aung San Suu Kyi’s government sent thousands of troops into Rohingya villages and hamlets last October after nine policemen were killed by ARSA.

The security forces’ offensive has been beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape; with Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warning of the risk of ethnic cleansing.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely condemned for lack of moral leadership and compassion in the face of the crisis, denting the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s reputation.

Rohingya group denies links with al-Qaeda, ISIL

by

Rakhine-based Rohingya fighters, who emerged in October last year, say they have no ties to any ‘terrorist group’.

Ataullah Abu Amar Jununi, centre, heads the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army [ARSA video, YouTube screengrab]

by Faisal Edroos

The Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA), a small group of men fighting in Myanmar’s western region of Rakhine, have rejected accusations they have links with al-Qaeda, ISIL (also known as ISIS) or other armed groups; and warned foreign fighters against entering the troubled region.

In a statement released on Thursday, ARSA said it had “no links with al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), Lashkar-e-Taiba or any other transnational terrorist group”.

In its statement, ARSA used ISIS to refer to the armed ISIL group.

It said it did not welcome the involvement of any of those entities in the conflict and called on countries in the region “to prevent terrorists from entering Arakan and making a bad situation worse”.

Arakan is another term for Rakhine, the western state of Myanmar where most of the country’s 800,000 Rohingya live.

The statement also said the group was concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Rakhine and called on aid groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to visit the area and provide life-saving assistance to those that had been affected by the violence.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a Rohingya living in Rakhine’s embattled township of Buthidaung told Al Jazeera that it was unlikely that ARSA’s latest announcement would sway international support in favour of the Rohingya.

“For years the international community has known that there are no terrorist groups in Rakhine. Even though ARSA has distanced itself from such groups today, it’s clear, our neighbours and the world has no interest in coming to our defence.”

More than 370,000 Rohingya have fled from Rakhine to neighbouring Bangladesh after the military launched a counteroffensive following attacks by ARSA on 30 police posts and an army base last month.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that entire Rohingya villages had been burned to the ground since the start of the security forces’ operation, while Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing, appealing to the country’s authorities to end violence against the majority-Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine.

The Myanmar army has put the death toll at around 400, saying most of those killed were fighters. Residents, however, say it is more than 3,000 people.

Despite facing decades of oppression, the predominantly Muslim Rohingya had largely refrained from violence.

‘Systematic abuses’

ARSA, formerly known as Harakatul Yakeen, first emerged in October 2016 when it attacked three police outposts in the Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships, killing nine police officers.

In an 18-minute video statement released last October, Ataullah Abu Amar Jununi, the group’s leader, defended the assault, blaming the Myanmar army for inciting the violence.

“For over 75 years there have been various crimes and atrocities committed against the Rohingya … that’s why we carried out the October 9, 2016, attack – to send a message that if the violence is not stopped, we have the right to defend ourselves,” he said.

Maung Zarni, a non-resident fellow at the European Centre for the Study of Extremism, told Al Jazeera that the group’s actions were borne out of “systematic abuses of genocidal proportions” by the Myanmar military.

“They’re a group of hopeless men who decided to form some kind of self-defence group and protect their people who are living in conditions akin to a Nazi concentration camp,” he said.

“ARSA’s actions resemble Jewish inmates at Auschwitz who rose up against the Nazis in October 1944.”

An extensive report issued last December by the International Crisis Group said ARSA is “led by a committee of Rohingya emigres in Saudi Arabia and is commanded on the ground by Rohingya with international training and experience in modern guerrilla war tactics”.

It said the group did not appear to have “extremist motivations,” and enjoyed considerable sympathy and backing from Muslims in northern Rakhine state.

Govt should see Rohingyas as refugees, not Muslims: Owaisi

by

Hyderabad: If refugees from Tibet, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can stay in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said.

He also cited the case of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who has taken shelter in India for over a decade now following threats from Islamic fundamentalists in her country.

Attacking the NDA government over its stance on Rohingyas, who are fleeing Myanmar’s violence-hit Rakhine state, he said, “Is it humane that you want to send back those who have lost everything. This is wrong.”

If Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen can take shelter in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims? he asked while addressing a gathering here late last night.

“When Taslima Nasreen became your sister, can’t Rohingya become your brother, Mr Modi,” Owaisi, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, said.

The BJP government at the centre should not see the Rohingyas as Muslims but as refugees, he maintained.

“We want to tell the BJP government, don’t look at them as Muslims. They are refugees,” he said.

“India gave shelter to refugees from Tibet, those from Sri Lanka and Chakma refugees from Bangladesh,” Owaisi said.

“When it was told that they (Lankan refugees) are taking part in terror, what was done? They were shifted from one camp to another,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader alleged.

The Constitution of India gives right to equality and that applies to refugees as well, Owaisi said.

“The BJP government says we will send all Rohingyas back. We want to ask the Indian prime minister, under which law you will send them back, which law?” he asked.

(Agencies)

Sindhu in semis; Sameer, Satwik-Chirag lose in Korea Open quarters

by

Seoul: P V Sindhu and Sameer Verma advanced to the quarter-finals with straight-game wins in their respective women’s and men’s singles preliminaries of the USD 600,000 Korea Super Series here on Thursday.

However, it was curtains for Parupalli Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth — both of whom bowed out of the tournament after losing their second-round men’s singles matches.

Olympic silver-medallist Sindhu saw off Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 22-20 21-17 to set up a clash with Japan’s Minatsu Mitani, who won a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships and had also defeated Saina Nehwal in the finals to clinch the 2012 French Open title.

Hong Kong Super Series finalist and Syed Modi Grand Prix gold winner Sameer defeated Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19 21-13 in 41 minutes. He will need to raise his game by a few notches when he faces local hot favourite Son Wan Ho.

Son Wan, seeded top, had to dig deep to end Kashyap’s run. He battled for an hour and 16 minutes before getting the better of the Indian 21-16 17-21 21-16 to reach the last- eight stage.

Praneeth fought hard before going down 13-21 24-26 to seventh seeded Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei in a contest that lasted 40 minutes.

In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty showcased rising Indian prowess in men’s doubles, beating seventh seeded Chinese Taipei combo of Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang 23-21 16-21 21-8 in 51 minutes in a second round match.

The young Indian duo will make their maiden appearance in a Superseries quarter-final on Friday. They will next take on third-seeded Japanese combination of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.

Earlier, World No. 4 Sindhu, who clinched a maiden silver at Glasgow World Championship recently, had come into the match with a 1-1 record against Jindapol, who had beaten the Indian at Syed Modi International last year.

Sindhu had to battle hard in the opening game with World No. 16 Jindapol managing to grab a 9-7 and 13-10 lead but the Indian broke off at 14-16 with six straight points. The Thai shuttler drew parity before Sindhu closed the issue.

The second game was also a close contest with both the shuttlers locked in a duel till 8-8.

Sindhu moved ahead and grabbed a 12-9 lead and even though Jindapol managed to claw back at 15-15, Sindhu ensured that she had the last laugh.

Meanwhile, Rankireddy and Shetty were sharp from the outset, matching their hard-hitting Chinese Taipei opponents in the quick-fire exchanges and keeping their composure at the end of a tense first game.

Shetty was a revelation at the front with his interceptions, while his partner kept banging down big smashes from the back.

Although their opponents fought their way back in by taking the second game, the Indians had plenty in reserve in the decider, in which they shot off to a 10-2 lead and never let go.

“It’s unreal,” said Shetty. “We didn’t expect to enter the quarter-finals. Coming in, we had a bad show at the World Championships. This is the biggest victory we’ve had. It’s a big boost for us.”

Rankireddy said the experience of having played qualifying matches in mixed doubles helped him adjust to the drift in the hall.

“I played the qualifying rounds, so I knew the direction of the drift and that made it easier to control the shuttle.

We played a Chinese Taipei pair in the first round. They play the same style — a lot of drives. We knew that if they play that style, we could keep the shuttle down and control the rallies. We just stuck to the plan.

(PTI)

AAP to contest UP civic body polls, slams BJP for misgovernance

by

Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced it will contest the forthcoming municipal corporation elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference in the state capital, national spokesman of the party and incharge for Uttar Pradesh Sanjay Singh said the AAP was committed to weeding out graft from the civic bodies and giving people good governance.

Stating that the people had already become fed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Yogi Adityanath, the AAP leader said civic bodies over the years had turned into centres of graft in the state.

The party had serious intent to set things right, apart from putting an end to the exploitation of “safai karmacharis”, he said.

Elections to the 16 civic bodies in the state are likely to be held later this year. The AAP, he further informed, would waive house tax if it came to power and would ensure that people got clean drinking water.

These and other issues would be part of the party’s election manifesto.

(IANS)

Sadhvi allegedly gang-raped at Sriji temple in Barsana, UP

by

Mathura: A 45-year-old sadhvi was allegedly gang-raped inside a temple complex in Barsana four days back, police said today.

The incident took place on the night of September 11 at the Sriji temple in Barsana, near Mathura.
According to the FIR, the woman was sleeping in the balcony of the temple when a watchman and another staffer forcibly took her to a secluded place and took turns raping her.

“Two police teams have been formed to nab the accused,” SP Rural, Aditya Kumar Shukla, said. He added the victim has been sent to a hospital for medical examination.

Traumatised by the incident, she initially didn’t say anything. However, she told reporters that she approached police on the evening of September 13 but no FIR was registered.

The FIR was finally lodged on September 14 on the intervention of SSP Swapnil Mamgai after word of the incident gradually started to spread.

(PTI)

Brad Pitt At His Frankest Best

by

Hollywood Hunk Brad Pitt happens to be an actor & producer known as much for his versatility as he is for his handsome face. Golden Globe – winner Brad Pitt’s most widely recognized role may be Tyler Durden in Fight Club (1999). However, his portrayals of Billy Beane in Moneyball (2011), and Rusty Ryan in the remake of Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and its sequels, also loom large in his filmography. A little info about the hunky dude will not be out of place at this juncture. Brad Pitt was born as William Bradley Pitt on 18th Dec, 1963, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and was raised in Springfield, Missouri. He is the son of Jane Etta, a school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company manager. He has a younger brother, Douglas (Doug) Pitt, and a younger sister, Julie Neal Pitt. At Kickapoo High School, Brad Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student government & school musicals. He attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism with a focus on advertising. He occasionally acted in fraternity shows. He left college 2 credits short of graduating to move to California. Before he became successful at acting, Brad Pitt had supported himself by driving strippers in limos, moving refrigerators & also dressing up as a giant chicken while working for “el Pollo Loco”.

Brad Pitt’s earliest credited roles were in the small screen arena. And the rest, as they say, is history. In this candid interview session Brad Pitt talks about his divorce with his better half Angelina Jolie, quitting drinking & thereby becoming a better man.

*So to begin with how did acting come out of you?

*Well, I think every people act out at some time or the other. In fact when I was a kid, I was certainly drawn to stories, beyond the stories that we were living & knew stories with different points of view. And I found those stories in film, especially. Different cultures & lives so foreign to mine? I think & that was one of the draws that propelled me into films. But of course I didn’t know how to articulate stories. I’m certainly not a good orator, sitting here telling a story, but I felt that I could foster them in films. Comedian Jerry Lee Lewis, was certainly my idol, my inspiration.

*The best actors blur into their characters, but given how well the world knows you, it seems you have a much harder time blurring these days?

*I have so much attached to this facade.

*But then, in War Machine, you find the little gesture that makes the Glen McMahon character ours. Like the way he runs, which is hilarious.

*The run to me was important because it was about the delusion of your own grandeur, not knowing what you really look like. All pencil legs, you know. Not being able to connect reality to this facade of grandeur.

The other equally distinctive characteristic is Glen’s McMahon’s voice. Where did it come from? You know, it’s a little bit of a cliché, but I just enjoyed it too much: There’s, you know, of course, Patton in it. But I could not get Sterling Hayden out of my mind. I’m just fascinated with Sterling Hayden, off – camera, between films, and I couldn’t escape that. There’s even a little bit of Chris Farley in mannerisms. And then Kiefer Sutherland in Monsters vs. Aliens, you know, doing the cartoon voice. It just wouldn’t go anywhere else; it kept coming back there.

*Have you ever felt the need to be more political?

*I can help in other ways. I can help by getting movies out with certain messages. I’ve got to be moved by something, I can’t fake it. I grew up with that Ozarkian mistrust of politics to begin with, so I just do better building a house for someone in New Orleans or getting certain movies to the screen that might not get made otherwise.

*You’re good at playing that kind of character, the one that doesn’t have a truly accurate vision of himself.

*It makes me laugh. Any of my foibles are born from my own hubris. Always, always. Anytime. I famously step in shit, at least for me it seems pretty epic. I often wind up with a smelly foot in my mouth. I often say the wrong thing, often in the wrong place & time. Often! In my own private Idaho, it’s funny as shit. I don’t have that gift. I’m better speaking in some other art form. I’m trying to get better. I’m really trying to get better.

*You’ve played characters in pain. What is pain, emotional & physical?

*Yeah, I’m kind of done playing those. I think it was more pain tourism. It was still avoidance in some way. I’ve never heard anyone laugh bigger than an African mother who’s lost 9 family members. What is that? I just got R & B for the 1st time. R & B comes from great pain, but it’s a celebration. To me, it’s embracing what’s left. It’s that African woman being able to laugh much more boisterously than I’ve ever been able to.

*Do you think if the past 6 months hadn’t happened you’d be in this place eventually? That it would have caught up with you?

*I think it would have come knocking, no matter what. People call it a midlife crisis, but this isn’t the same! No, this isn’t that. I interpret a midlife crisis as a fear of growing old & fear of dying, you know, going out & buying a Lamborghini. Actually, they’ve been looking pretty good to me lately!

*There might be a few Lamborghinis in your future too!

*I do have a Ford GT. I do remember a few spots along the road where I’ve become absolutely tired of myself. And this is a big one. These moments have always been a huge generator for change. And I’m quite grateful for it. But for me, personally, I can’t remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn’t boozing or had a spliff, or something. And you realize that a lot of it is, um, cigarettes, you know, pacifiers. And I’m running from feelings. I’m really, really happy to be done with all of that. I mean I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family. But even this last year, you know, things I wasn’t dealing with. I was boozing too much. It’s just become a problem. And I’m really happy it’s been half a year now, which is bittersweet, but I’ve got my feelings in my fingertips again. I think that’s part of the human challenge: You either deny them all of your life or you answer them & evolve.

*Was it hard to stop smoking pot?

*No. Back in my stoner days, I wanted to smoke a joint with Jack & Snoop & Willie. You know, when you’re a stoner, you get these really stupid ideas. Well, I don’t want to indict the others, but I haven’t made it to Willie yet.

*How about alcohol, you don’t miss it?

*I mean, we have a winery. I enjoy wine very, very much, but I just ran it to the ground. I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.

*So how do you just drop it like that?

*Don’t want to live that way anymore.

*What do you replace it with?

*Cranberry juice & fizzy water! I’ve got the cleanest urinary tract in all of LA, I guarantee you! But the terrible thing is I tend to run things into the ground. That’s why I’ve got to make something so calamitous. I’ve got to run it off a cliff.

*All that bad stuff: Do you use it to tell your story?

*It just keeps knocking. I’m 53 and I’m just getting into it. These are things I thought I was managing very well. I remember literally having this thought a year, a year & a half ago; someone was going through some scandal. Something crossed my path that was a big scandal, and I went, “Thank God I’m never going to have to be a part of one of those again.” I live my life, I have my family, I do my thing, I don’t do anything illegal, I don’t cross anyone’s path. What’s the David Foster Wallace quote? Truth will set you free, but not until it’s done with you first.

*When you go dark, do you retreat, disconnect?

*I don’t know how to answer that. I certainly shield. Shield, shield, shield. Mask, escape. Now I think: That’s just me.

*if you had a slideshow of all your worst moments as a human, you wouldn’t want anyone to see that slideshow. The way you’ve had to live for years, that slideshow has been public.

*But so little of it is accurate, and I avoid so much of it. I just let it go. It’s always been a long run game for me. As far as out there, I hope my intentions & work will speak for themselves. But, yes, at the same time, it is a drag to have certain things drug out in public & misconstrued. I worry about it more for my kids, being subjected to it, and their friends getting ideas from it. And of course it’s not done with any kind of delicacy or insight, it’s done to sell. And so you know the most sensational sells, and that’s what they’ll be subjected to, and that pains me. I worry more in my current situation about the slideshow my kids have. I want to make sure it’s well – balanced.

*How do you make sense of the past six months and keep going?

*Family first. People on their deathbeds don’t talk about what they obtained or were awarded. They talk about their loved ones or their regrets, that seems to be the menu. I say that as someone who’s let the work take me away. Kids are so delicate. They absorb everything. They need to have their hand held and things explained. They need to be listened to. When I get in that busy work mode, I’m just not hearing them out. I want to be better at that.

*Do you know, specifically, logistically when you have the kids?

*Yeah. We’re working at that now. It must be much harder when visitation is uncertain,
It was all that for a while. I was really on my back and chained to a system when Child Services was called. And you know, after that, we’ve been able to work together to sort this out. We’re both,me & Angelina doing our best. I heard one lawyer say, “No one wins in court, it’s just a matter of who gets hurt worse.” And it seems to be true, you spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you’re right and why they’re wrong, and it’s just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately my partner in this agrees. It’s just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart.

*How do you tell your kids?

*Well, there’s a lot to tell them because there’s understanding the future, there’s understanding the immediate moment and why we’re at this point, and then it brings up a lot of issues from the past that we haven’t talked about. So our focus is that everyone comes out stronger & better people, there is no other outcome. I know I’m just in the middle of this thing now, not at the beginning or at the end, just smack – dab in the middle. And I don’t want to dodge any of it.”

*And the fact that you guys are pointing toward that, that clearly doesn’t always happen. If you ended up in court, it would be a spectacular nightmare.

*Spectacular. I see it everywhere. Such animosity and bitterly dedicating years to destroying each of them and needs vindication by destruction, and just wasting years on that hatred. I don’t want to live that way.

*What in the recent past has given you immense joy? Can you feel that right now?

*It’s an elusive thing. It’s been a more painful phase than normal, just certain things have come up, but I see joy out of the window, and I can see the silhouette of palms and an expression on one of my kids’ faces, a parting smile, or finding some, you know, moment of bliss with the clay. You know, it’s everywhere, it’s got to be found. It’s the laughter of the African mother in my experience, it’s got to come from the blues, to get R & B. That’ll be in my book.

*Are you going to write a book?

*No! I find writing too arduous.

*So is there an urge to try to…?

*The first urge is to cling on.

*Then?

*And then you’ve got a cliché: “If you love someone, set them free.” Now I know what it means, by feeling it. It means to love without ownership. It means expecting nothing in return. But it sounds good written. It sounds good when Sting sings it. It doesn’t mean fuck – all to me until, you know, until you can embody it. Until you live it. That’s why I never understood growing up with Christianity, don’t do this, don’t do that, it’s all about do’s & don’ts, more don’ts than do’s and I was like how the fuck do you know who you are and what works for you if you don’t find out where the edge is, where’s your line? You’ve got to step over it to know where it is.

*After all this, do you feel constrained as an actor in some ways?

*No, I don’t really think of myself much as an actor anymore. It takes up so little of my year & my focus. Film feels like a cheap pass for me, as a way to get at those hard feelings. It doesn’t work anymore, especially being a dad.

*On the pie chart, what is acting?

*Acting would be a very small slice.

*Do you see yourself as having been successful?

*I wish I could just change my name. Come out as a new person? Like P. Diddy. I can be Puffy now or, what is Snoop? Lion? I just felt like Brad was a misnomer, and now I just feel like fucking Brad.

*What other name would you have put on yourself?

*Nothing. When outside success comes, the thing I’ve enjoyed the most is when there’s a personal discovery in it. But when I find it repetitious or painfully boring, it’s absolute death to me.

*When is acting still exciting?

*I would say more in comedic stuff, where you’re taking gambles. I can turn out the hits over & over and I am just, my favorite movie is the worst, performing film of anything I’ve done, The Assassination Of Jesse James. If I believe something is worthy, then I know it will be worthy in time to come. And there are times I get really cynical, you know. I spend a lot of time on design and even this sculpture folly I’m on, I have days when, it all ends up in the dirt anyways: What’s the point? So I go through that cycle, too, you know? What’s the point?

*So what’s on the agenda later?

*I’m anxious to get to the studio. I think it was Picasso who talked about the moment of looking at the subject, and paint hitting canvas, and that is where art happens. For me I’m having a moment of getting to feel emotion at my fingertips. But to get that emotion to clay, I just haven’t cracked the surface. And I don’t know what’s coming. Right now I know the manual labor is good for me, getting to know the expansiveness & limitations of the materials. I’ve got to start from the bottom, I’ve got to sweep my floor, I’ve got to wrap up my shit at night, you know?

Fire kills at least 25 at religious school in Malaysia

by

Early morning blaze kills at least 23 students and two teachers at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah school in Kuala Lumpur.

Police and firemen work at the religious school [A. Ananthalakshmi/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 25 people, mostly students, were killed after a blaze broke out early on Thursday at a religious school in Kuala Lumpur – the deadliest fire in decades in Malaysia.

The fire at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah – a “tahfiz” boarding school where students learn to memorise the Quran – was reported at 5:40am (21:40 GMT Wednesday), according to a statement from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department.

Khirudin Drahman, director of Kuala Lumpur’s fire and rescue department, told AFP news agency the number of confirmed dead are 23 students and two teachers.

“It really does not make sense for so many to die in the fire,” he said. “I think it is one of the country’s worst fire disasters in the past 20 years. We are now investigating the cause of the fire.”

Seven people were taken to a nearby hospital for injuries, while 11 others were rescued.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and the blaze was out within an hour, but not before it wreaked terrible devastation – pictures in local media showed ash-covered, fire-blackened beds.

Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh told reporters the boys who died were aged 13-17, and they probably suffocated due to smoke inhalation. The dormitory had only one entrance, leaving many of the victims trapped inside, he said.

An official said bodies were piled on top of each other, indicating a possible stampede as people tried to flee the fire. Some witnesses said they had heard the students crying for help after the fire broke out.

“They’re still counting the bodies, which were piled on top of each other in a corner,” Singh said.

Hundreds of people, including families of some victims, gathered outside the school as more bodies were being removed by fire officials.

The blaze began in the sleeping quarters on the top floor of the three-storey school building, fire officials said.

The police chief said no foul play was suspected. Abu Obaidat bin Mohamad Saithalimat, deputy director of the fire department, told reporters outside the school the fire was likely caused by an electrical short circuit.

Loga Bala Mohan, the government’s federal territories deputy minister, said: “We sympathise with the families. It is one of the worst fires involving so many lives. We urgently want the authorities to quickly probe the cause of the deadly fire so that we will be able to prevent future disasters.”

Tahfiz schools usually teach students between the ages of five and 18.

There were 519 tahfiz schools registered across the country as of April, but many more are believed to be unregistered. Such schools are unregulated by the education ministry and fall under the purview of the religious department.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives