THE MODERN AND MACABRE VODOU OF HAITI

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by an earthquake of catastrophic proportions. The death toll was estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, while many survivors were left without food, shelter, or access to clean water. For a country that was already ranked as the poorest in the Western hemisphere, this devastating display of nature’s destructive power could not have felt less deserved.

Haitian ghettos (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

The ruined cathedral of Port-au-Prince (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

It is often out of despair and desperation that people search most earnestly for meaning; from a position of having nothing, that they more readily open themselves up to supernatural guidance. In the wake of the earthquake, many Haitians were rallied towards either one or the other of this nation’s main religions: Christianity and Vodou.

Christianity is widespread in Haiti, its scriptures often emblazoned in bold, colorful lettering across the front of shops, trucks, markets and homes. Hand-painted billboards in the capital, Port-au-Prince, bear slogans such as "School of Mary & Joseph," "Christ-is-Kind Pharmacy," or even "Jesus Saves Bakery.

Some Christians here believe that the quake was caused by Vodou, that God sent targeted shockwaves through the earth in order to punish the heretics, and put an end to this false — and dangerous — religion. For all its critics though, the traditional practice of Vodou still thrives in Haiti.

You won’t see it out in the open. It is secretive and subversive, an age-old ceremony that has been pushed further underground by the recent media focus on the country. As a tourist in Haiti, you’ll likely just see traces of Vodou, the ephemera of faith. Visit the noisy, chaotic “Marchéde Fer” — the old iron market of Port-au-Prince — and you’ll find vendors selling herbs and voodoo dolls, market stalls full of curious trinkets and esoteric carvings. 

Flooding in Port-au-Prince (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

A street in Port-au-Prince (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog) 

For a fee, they’ll even put on a show. Tour groups are sometimes invited to attend “authentic” Vodou ceremonies, giving roughly a month’s local salary to see a man dance, sing, and light candles. You’ll pay to see him wave his magic wand, and mumble incoherent phrases in French Creole. You’ll need to pay for the offerings, too, and the loa (powerful Vodou spirits) will settle for nothing less than a bottle of the finest rum. Cigars, too, are generally welcome. Some days the veil between worlds is heavier than on others... it might take another cash offering to help entice the spirits through.

By the end, you’ll have spent a hundred bucks and seen nothing of any real significance.

But that’s not real Vodou. To experience anything authentic, you’ll need to dig a little deeper. The Christian camp is often embarrassed to bring you nearer the truth, while for the believers this is too deep, too personal a thing to share for spectacle. If you want to see real Haitian Vodou, you’re going to have to find it for yourself.

On Boulevard Jn J Dessalines in Port-au-Prince, there’s a kind of outdoor gallery, a collection of graphic work by local sculptors and artists. The signs and sigils of practical Vodou feature heavily; hand-painted veve appear alongside masonic and new-world-order symbology, and decorate a disturbing range of sculptures formed from children’s dolls and industrial debris, hand-carved wood and human bones.

It’s not until you’ve seen a freshly exhumed human skull attached to the end of a vacuum cleaner and painted up with the sigils of a voodoo god, that you’re anywhere close to understanding the strange blend of macabre tradition and failed industrialization that inhabits the urban sprawl at the heart of Haiti’s capital.

Entrance to the "Atis Rezistans" art museum (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Vodou characters in a Haitian art museum (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Human bones & old car parts (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Children's dolls & human skulls (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

For the record, this still isn’t Vodou you’re looking at — but you’re definitely getting warmer. If it’s full immersion you’re after though, an authentic encounter with the Vodou faith, then your next stop should be the capital’s chief burial ground: Le Grand Cimetière.

Vodou is more than just philosophy — it is practice. It is hands-on, and it is dirty. The bones of the dead, the earthly remains of ancestors, take on a very special significance in the Vodou faith, and so it should come as no wonder that the necropolis at the center of the capital serves as Vodou ground zero.

After the earthquake, an estimated 250,000 residential houses in Port-au-Prince were left in ruin. That’s a lot of people without homes. The capital’s Grand Cemetery — opened at the turn of the 19th century and consisting of tens of thousands of tombs and mausoleums — suddenly became a place of refuge for the destitute. Ancestors rolled over to share their roofs, their coffins, as the city’s poorest flooded through the cemetery gates in search of sanctuary.

Entrance to the Grand Cemetery (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Vodou dolls pinned to a tree in the cemetery (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

They broke open tombs, this new wave of grave-dwellers. Many of the interred bodies were cast out into the alleyways of the necropolis, and burnt, some with, some without ritual. A whole new community grew up inside and in between the old stone monuments. In the far back corner of the Grand Cemetery, beneath the mountain slopes where tents stand amidst tumbling mounds of rubble, the citizens of the necropolis have raised a ramshackle church. The congregation moans and wails through the simple ceremonies, as the canvas awning flaps noisily in the wind.

Outside the church, a jet-black cross stands alone in a courtyard, hemmed in by mausoleums, marble walls. It is a shrine to Baron Samedi: ruler of the Vodou underworld, and lord of the death loa, or “guédé.” Le Baron typically appears dressed in funerary attire, with a black top hat and a skull for a face. In the Grand Cimetière, worshippers leave offerings for him at this shrine; they write messages in blood across the walls that surround it.

Worshippers at a shrine to Baron Samedi (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Mural in a Haitian cemetery (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

A shrine to Baron Kriminel (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)  

Not far away, in a quiet corner of the necropolis stands another shrine. This one is to the fearsome guédé known as Baron Kriminel. While Samedi may be seen as the master of the veils and the newly dead, Baron Kriminel is a manifestation of pure malice and violence. In the Vodou tradition he is sometimes known as the first murderer; a possible parallel to the biblical Cain. When summoned in ceremony, Baron Kriminel rides his host into a frenzy, causing them to bite and spit and slash and claw at those around them.

If any proof were needed that these shrines see active use — that Vodou today is more than simply monuments and writing on the walls — then it can be found all around this cemetery. Human bones and skulls appear nailed to the trunks of trees; Vodou dolls and votives are prolific in number, decorating tombs and branches and monuments; and of the goats that wander freely throughout the cemetery, some can be seen laying in the shadows between tombs, their throats cut deep from one side to the other.

Vodou dolls & human skulls (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Haitian tombs (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

On the subject of sacrifice, it is not only animals that are offered up to the loa in modern-day ritual. At Léogâne — a town right at the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake — there stands a remote orphanage run by Christian missionaries. Many of the children here were born with deformities, and some still bear the scars of Vodou ritual.

According to traditional Vodou beliefs, children brought into the world with birth defects are thusly marked out as daemonic vessels, and to protect the community, such children must be offered up as sacrifice to the loa. One boy at the orphanage, a quadriplegic, was smuggled out of his mountain village and carried to safety here, after his mother had handed him over to the local Vodou priests. Another child, a girl, has thick, angry scars across her neck; she was rescued after her throat was slashed in ritual, and her body — still alive — thrown out onto a rubbish pile.

That’s the way the Christians tell it, at least.

The rooftops of Port-au-Prince (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

One of the Grand Cemetery's resident goats (photograph by Darmon Richter, via The Bohemian Blog)

Despite the underlying dichotomy, despite this invisible battle of minds that rages at the heart of Haitian culture, the people themselves are — for the most part — kind and welcoming and hospitable. For every baby-killing priest you hear about, there must be at least a thousand decent human beings who peacefully adhere to the teachings of this nation’s Vodou faith.

No religion should be judged purely on its most radical members. Christianity today is not the Salem Witch Trials. Islam is not Al Qaeda. Vodou, at its most bloody, is a truly terrifying spectacle — and yet the philosophy that surrounds it, the finely structured explanations of life and death, of the material and immaterial planes, is more complex, more thoughtful, and more intrinsic to Haitian culture than many would give it credit for.

Native American Lore #1: Raven and His Grandmother

In her barrabara (a native home) at the end of a large village, lived an old grandmother with her grandson, a raven. The two lived apart from the other villagers because they were disliked. When the men returned from fishing for cod, the raven would come and beg for food, but they would never give him any of their catch. But when all had left the beach, the raven would come and pick up any leftover refuse, even sick fish. On these, raven and his grandmother lived.

One winter was extremely cold. Hunting was impossible; food became so scarce the villages neared starvation. Even their chief had but little left. So the chief called all his people together and urged them to use every effort to obtain food enough for all, or they would starve.

The chief then announced that he wished for his son to take a bride and she would be selected from the girls of the village. All the girls responded to the excitement of the occasion and dressed in their very best costumes and jewelry.

For a short time hunger was forgotten as the girls lined up for the contest and were judged by the critical eye of their chief, who selected the fairest of the fair for his son's bride. A feast was given by the chief following their marriage ceremony. But soon after hunger began again.

The raven perched on a pole outside his barrabara, observing and listening attentively to all that had happened. After the feast, he flew home and said to his grandmother, "I, too, want to marry." She made no reply, so he went about his work, gathering what food he could for his little home. Each day he flew to the beach and found dead fish or birds. He always gathered more than enough for two people. While he was in the village, he noted that the famine seemed worse. So he asked the chief, "What will you give me, if I bring you food?"

The chief looked at him in great surprise and said, "You shall have my oldest daughter for your wife." Nothing could have pleased raven more. He flew away in a joyful mood and said to his grandmother, "Let's clean out the barrabara. Make everything clean for my bride. I am going to give the chief some food, and he has promised to give me his oldest daughter."

"Ai, Ai, Y-a-h! You are going to marry? Our barrabara is too small and too dirty. Where will you put your wife?"

"Caw! Caw! Caw! Never mind. Do as I say," he screamed at his grandmother, and began pecking her to hurry.

Early next morning raven flew away, and later in the day returned with a bundle of yukelah (dried salmon) in his talons. "Come with me to the chief's house, grandmother," he called to her. Raven handed the fish to the chief and received the chief's oldest daughter for his bride.

Raven preceded his grandmother as she brought the bride to their little home. He cleared out the barrabara of old straw and bedding When the two women arrived, they found the little home empty, and the grandmother began to scold him and said, "What are you doing? Why are you throwing out everything."

"I am cleaning house, as you can see," raven curtly said.

When night came, raven spread wide one wing, and asked his bride to lie on it, and then covered her with the other wing. She spent a miserable night, as raven's fish odour nearly smothered her. So she determined she would leave in the morning.

But by morning, she decided to stay and try to become accustomed to him. During the day she was cheerless and worried. When raven offered her food, she would not eat it. On the second night, raven invited her to lay her head on his chest and seek rest in his arms. Only after much persuasion did she comply with his wish. The second night was no better for her, so early the next morning she stole away from him and went back to her father's house, telling him everything.

Upon waking and finding his wife gone, raven inquired of his grandmother what she knew of his wife's whereabouts. She assured raven that she knew nothing. "Go then to the chief and bring her back to me," called raven. Grandmother feared him and left to do his bidding. When she came to the chief's house, she was pushed out of the door. This she promptly reported to her grandson.

The summer passed warm and pleasant, but a hard winter and another famine followed. As in the previous winter, the grandmother and the raven had plenty of food and wood, while others suffered greatly from lack of food. Raven's thoughts again turned to marriage. This time she was a young and beautiful girl who lived at the other end of the village. He told his grandmother about her and that he wanted to marry her. He asked, "Grandmother, will you go and bring the girl here, and I will marry her."

"Ai, Ai, Y-a-h! And you are going to marry her? Your first wife could not live with you because you smell strong. The girls do not wish to marry you.

"Caw! Caw! Caw! Never mind my smell! Never mind my smell! Go--do as I say."

To impress his commands and secure her obedience, he started pecking at her until she was glad to go. While his grandmother was gone, raven became restless and anxious. He hopped about the barrabara and nearby hillocks, straining his eyes for a sight of his expected bride.

Hurriedly he began cleaning out the barrabara, throwing out old straw, bedding, baskets, and all. The grandmother upon her return scolded raven, but he paid no attention to her.

The young bride, like her predecessor, was enfolded tightly in his wings, and likewise she had a wretched and sleepless night. But she was determined to endure his odour if possible. She thought at least with him she would have plenty of food to eat. The second night was as bad as the first, but she stayed on and secretly concluded she would do her best to stay until spring.

On the third day the raven, seeing that his wife was still with him, said, "Grandmother, tomorrow I will go and get a big, fat whale. While I am gone, make a belt and a pair of torbarsars (native shoes) for my wife."

"Ai, Ai, Y-a-h! How will you bring a big, fat whale? The hunters cannot kill one, how will you do it?"

"Caw! Caw! Caw! Be quiet and do what I tell you: make the belt and torbarsars while I go and get the whale," he angrily exclaimed, using his most effective method of silencing her.

Before dawn next morning the raven flew away to sea. In his absence the old woman was busily engaged making the things for the young bride, who watched and talked to her. About midday, they saw raven flying toward shore, carrying a whale.

The grandmother started a big fire, and the young woman tucked up her parka (native dress), belted it with her new belt, put on the new torbarsars, sharpened the stone knife, and went to the beach to meet her husband. As he drew near he called, "Grandmother, go into the village and tell all the people that I have brought home a big, fat whale."

She ran as hard as she could and told the joyful news. The half- dead people suddenly became alive. Some sharpened their knives, others dressed in their best clothes. But most of them just ran as they were and with such knives as they had with them to the beach to see the whale.

His sudden importance was not lost on the raven, who hopped up and down the whale's back, viewing the scene of carnage, as the people gorged themselves on the whale.

Every few moments raven would take a pebble out of his bag, then after some thought put it back. When the chief and his relatives came near, raven drove them away. They had to be content just watching the people enjoy their feasting, and carrying off blubber to their homes. Later, in the village, the people did share with the chief.

The raven's first wife, the chief's daughter, had a son by him, a little raven. She had it in her arms at the beach and walked in front of raven, where he could notice her. "Here is your child, look at it," she called. But he ignored her. She called to him several times and continued to show him the baby. At last he said, "Come closer--nearer still." But when she could not stand his odour any longer, she left him without a word.

Death occurred as a result of the feast. Many of the people ate so much fat on the spot that they died soon after. The rest of the people had eaten so much and filled their barrabaras so full, that during the night they all suffocated. Of the entire village, only three were left--the raven, his new wife, and the grandmother. There they lived on as their descendants do to this day.

Today In History 30JUNE2014

June 30

1520		Montezuma II is murdered as Spanish conquistadors flee the Aztec capital of Tenochtilan during the night.
1857		Charles Dickens reads from A Christmas Carol at St. Martin's Hall in London–his first public reading.
1859		Jean Francois Gravelet aka Emile Blondin, a French daredevil, becomes the first man to walk across Niagra Falls on a tightrope.
1908		A mysterious explosion, possibly the result of a meteorite, levels thousands of trees in the Tunguska region of Siberia with a force approaching twenty megatons.
1934		Adolf Hitler orders the purge of his own party in the "Night of the Long Knives."
1936		Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone With the Wind, is published.
1948		John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley demonstrate their invention, the transistor, for the first time.
1960		Alfred Hitchcock's film, Psycho, opens.
1971		Three Soviet cosmonauts die when their spacecreaft depressurizes during reentry.
Born on June 30
1685		John Gay, poet and playwright (The Beggar's Opera).
1768		Elizabeth Kortright, later Elizabeth Monroe, first lady to U.S. President James Monroe.
1911		Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet and critic.
1917		Lena Horne, American singer.
1919		Susan Hayward, actress.
1926		Paul Berg, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist.
1932		Mongo Beti, novelist and political writer.

Cobh: Titanic’s last port of call

Queenstown (known as Cobh today) was Titanic’s last port of call before disaster struck. The legendary ship has left an undeniable mark on this maritime town

For the 123 people that would leave on Titanic from her last port of call, Cobh was the a gateway to the new world. The majority of those 123 were third class passengers, travelling to America to begin new lives. The number included seven second class passengers, and only three first class. They came from all corners of Ireland to Cobh, a town with a maritime heritage stretching back hundreds of years.
On that day, 10 April, at 1:30pm, a flurry of whistle blowing indicated the tender ships PS Ireland and PS America had finished ferrying all the passengers to Titanic. Moments later, its final pick-up of people and post aboard, Titanic left Cobh sailing unwittingly towards disaster.

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  Cobh, formerly known as Queenstown

Titanic: A legacy

The rest of story, whether for TV, film or the written word, is well documented. The iceberg, the tragedies, heroes and villains of the Titanic story – ask almost anyone about Titanic, and they will fill you in on the timeline of the Ship of Dreams.
What is not so well known, is how the most notorious maritime tragedy of all time effected the towns Titanic left behind. Cobh is just one town that still feels Titanic’s legacy.

The experience

Today, Titanic and her passengers are remembered with reverence at places such as The Titanic Experience in Cobh. Here, in suitably respectful style the unanswered questions and the incredible coincidences of the Titanic story are brought into high relief.
All of the exhibitions have one thing in common: a reverential respect for the gravity of what happened. Through touch screen technology and holographic imagery, we’re given the background and context to Irish emigration in 1912, we see inside the famous ship and re-live the tragic events leading to disaster. The exhibition finishes off with footage of Titanic’s final resting place on the seabed. There’s also a guided Titanic Trail Tour, which winds through the buildings, streets and the actual pier the passengers left from.

Cobh remembers

Dr Michael Martin is well known in Cobh. His tours, his insight and his endless knowledge, not only about Titanic, but about emigration in general, are second to none. For each step his tour rambles through Cobh’s streets, you learn something new, gain new perspectives and begin to get a handle on how and why Ireland became so dependant on emigration and ships like Titanic.
Overall, Cobh holds a unique place in the larger Titanic story. The hopes and dreams of those who embarked at Cobh add a certain romance to this tragic tale. You can experience their world and connect to Titanic in Cobh today.

Germany Kicks Cellphone Provider Verizon Out for US Spying

Germany cancelled a contract with Verizon as part of an overhaul of its communications as a result of the United States government spying on German government officials' and citizens' cellphones.

Reports were obtained by Germany last October based on documents released by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that showed that the United States had conducted mass surveillance in Germany.

The German government had demanded talks with the US on a "no-spy" deal, but these collapsed after the US would not give the assurances Germany needed.  Germany is a member of NATO and a US ally.

"The pressures on networks as well as the risks from highly-developed viruses or Trojans are rising," Germany's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"Furthermore, the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms in the wake of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) affair, show that the German government needs a very high level of security for its critical networks."

The German company Deutsche Telekom AG will replace services provided by Verizon, and also added that the German company is already providing services for the most sensitive communications between the government and German intelligence agencies.

According to reports and documents published last year, Verizon was obliged by U.S. intelligence to turn over international and domestic calling records of its customers.

Verizon is the 2nd U.S. telephone company behind AT&T Inc in terms of revenue.

Supply of Ocean Fish Tapped Out: 100% More Needed Soon

A recent report led by the World Resources Institute finds that global fish production needs to more than double by the middle of the century to meet the demands of the world's growing population.

The WRI study says the world's oceans, lakes and rivers are fished to their limit, and it encourages "sustainable growth" of aquaculture or fish farms.

As the world population grows, there is a growing need for more food - including seafood. By 2030, the World Bank expects that seventy percent of the demand for fish will come from Asia.

In an ancient lake bed 16 miles north of the California-Mexico border, there is fresh water and new life.

"We're probably the largest catfish farm this side of the Mississippi...the largest catfish farm in California," said Craig Elliott, the co-owner of Imperial Catfish

Elliott said that several times a week, thousands of kilograms of fish from his ponds end up in Asian grocery stores where live fish is in high demand.

"In fact, we can't really produce enough fish for the demand," he said.

As demand for seafood increases worldwide, so do the number of fish farms.

"It's a relatively young industry but it grows at about 9 percent a year and we expect to keep that growth rate going in the next couple of decades," said Mike Velings, founder of Aqua-Spark, a company that invests in sustainable aquaculture businesses.

Velings said China is the world leader in producing farmed fish. There are very few farms in the United States.

"The U.S. relies heavily on wild caught and on imports and only one percent of the world's farming today is done in the U.S," he added.

Elliott pointed out that aquaculture is not an easy business in which to make a profit.

"You put a fish in at this big and it's going to be 18 months to two years before they are two to three pounds and so you have all that big outlay and you have no return for a long long time. Some people make it, some of them don't," said Elliott.

There are also environmental concerns. Activist Nathan Weaver cites the polluting impact of uneaten fish meal and waste products from farmed fish, in addition to the disruption of the natural food chain.

"Many of the species of fish we like to eat are large predatory fish, they are things like tuna or salmon that are already two or three levels up the food chain. So in order to farm these large carnivores you have to actually feed them smaller fish and the concern is that in order to keep a tuna farm or a salmon farm going you'll end up having to catch all the little fish in the ocean," said Weaver.

But the World Resources Institute says public policies, technology and private initiatives have prompted improvements in fish farms. For example, U.S. based Whole Foods Market sells farm raised seafood from environmentally conscious farms that do not use pesticides, antibiotics or added growth hormones.

For aquaculture to continue to grow, WRI calls for investments in technological innovations in areas that include breeding and disease control, and a shift to farming fish lower on the food chain, such as catfish. Elliott's fish eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and he offers simple prescriptions for keeping his ponds free of pollution.

"Don't overfeed, don't overcrowd, [and] you're not going to have those issues," he said.

He plans to expand his farm to keep up with the demand.

European Union holds off on more sanctions after Ukraine signs historic trade pact

June 27, 2014: Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko poses with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (L) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (R) at the EU Council in Brussels.Reuters

Russia suggested that Ukraine signing an historic trade and economic pact with the European Union Friday may bring "grave consequences."

The agreement also prompted EU leaders to hold off on imposing new sanctions on Russia for its continued military presence in the embattled country.   

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Friday's agreement the "most important day" for his country since it became independent from the Soviet Union.

Moscow has strongly opposed ties between Ukraine and the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not immediately comment on the trade pact, but in recent days has signaled that he wants to de-escalate the conflict to prevent further punishing sanctions.  

"The most important thing is to guarantee a long-term cease-fire as a precondition for meaningful talks between the Kiev authorities and representatives of the southeast (of Ukraine)," Putin said Friday.

In a statement Friday, European leaders meeting in Brussels left all options open, saying new sanctions have been prepared and could be imposed "without delay."

EU leaders gave the Russian government and the rebels in eastern Ukraine until Monday to take steps to improve the violent situation. Those included agreeing on a mechanism to verify the cease-fire, returning three border checkpoints to Ukraine, releasing all captives and launching "substantial negotiations" on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan.

The European Union also signed similar trade association agreements with two other former Soviet republics, Moldova and Georgia, Friday.

Businesses in the three countries whose goods and practices meet EU standards will be able to trade freely in any EU country without tariffs or restrictions. Likewise, EU goods and services will be able to sell more easily and cheaply to businesses and customers in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

"It's absolutely a new perspective for my country," Poroshenko said.

Russia’s response was threatening but unspecific. "There will undoubtedly be serious consequences for Ukraine and Moldova's signing," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said.

Moscow has resisted ties between Ukraine and Europe, fearing it will lose its influence over its strategic neighbor, which it considers the birthplace of Russian statehood and of Russian Orthodox Christianity.

It was the decision of Poroshenko's predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, to back out of the EU association agreement in November that touched off massive, bloody protests in Ukraine, and eventually led to Yanukovych's flight to Russia and Russia's occupation and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Svetlana Kosenko, an 18-year-old student from Ukraine's western regions, said she didn't believe the country would change overnight.  

"I think it will take a long time," she said. "As they say, hope dies last, and for now we hope things will be good."

Poroshenko's office confirmed that a weeklong cease-fire, which both sides have accused each other of violating, was set to expire at 10 p.m. local time.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told Ukraine's Fifth Channel that at least 20 servicemen had been killed since the rebels agreed to the cease-fire, although he did not elaborate. He said the government would respond "harshly and adequately" to all rebels who did not put down their arms by Friday evening.

An overnight battle for a National Guard base in the eastern city of Donetsk left rebels in control early Friday. All servicemen were set free but the commander was taken captive, according to the National Guard's website.

European Commission experts estimate Friday’s deal will boost Ukraine's national income by 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) a year. Ukraine won a 15-year transition period during which it can use tariffs to support its domestic auto industry from competition. Moldova will gradually eliminate protections for its dairy, pork, poultry and wine producers over 10 years, while the EU placed limits on imports of chicken from both countries.

Perhaps more important than the trade clauses is an accompanying 10-year plan for Ukraine to adopt EU product regulations. Such rules ease the way for international trade beyond Europe.

The trade deal also demands that Ukraine change the way it does business. Adopting EU rules on government contracts, competition policy and copyright for ideas and inventions should improve Ukraine's economy by reducing widespread corruption and making it more investor-friendly.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told Russian news agencies that the Kremlin would respond to the EU-Ukraine accord "as soon as negative consequences arise for the economy."

But Peskov dismissed the threat of immediate action against Poroshenko's government. "In order for those (consequences) to arise, the signed agreement needs to be implemented," he said.

Russia has previously imposed trade embargoes against its neighbors in response to political or economic moves that the Kremlin views as unfavorable.

The U.N. said Friday that 110,000 Ukrainians had fled to Russia this year and another 54,000 fled their homes but stayed in Ukraine as the government fought with separatists in the mostly Russian-speaking east. Long lines of cars stuffed with belongings backed up at the border heading into Russia this week.

Eli Wallach, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ Star, Dies at 98

June 24, 2014 | 10:07PM PT

Carmel Dagan

Tony- and Emmy-winning actor Eli Wallach, a major proponent of “the Method” style of acting best known for his starring role in Elia Kazan’s film “Baby Doll” and for his role as villain Tuco in iconic spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” died on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. He was 98.
On the bigscreen Wallach had few turns as a leading man, but none was as strong as his first starring role in 1956’s “Baby Doll,” in which he played a leering cotton gin owner intent on seducing the virgin bride (Carroll Baker) of his business rival (Karl Malden). But he appeared in more than 80 films, offering colorful turns in character roles in movies such as “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “Nuts,” “Lord Jim,” “The Misfits” and “The Two Jakes.”
The actor, who appeared in a wide variety of stage, screen and television roles, was often paired with his wife Anne Jackson, particularly onstage. In 1948 he was one of the core of 20 who joined Kazan, Cheryl Crawford and Bobby Lewis in starting the Actors Studio, where he studied with Lee Strasberg. Others included Jackson, David Wayne, Marlon Brando, Patricia Neal and Maureen Stapleton.
Wallach received an Honorary Academy Award at the second annual Governors Awards, presented on Nov. 13, 2010, for “a lifetime’s worth of indelible screen characters.”
His career began in earnest in the ’50s, when he achieved triumphs in Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo,” for which he won a Tony, and the revival of George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara.”
Times were lean early in Wallach’s acting career until he got a role in “Mister Roberts,” with which he stayed for two years until 1951, when Williams cast him opposite Stapleton in “The Rose Tattoo,” directed by Kazan. After playing the role for 18 months he went right into Williams’ “Camino Real” — for which he turned down the role of Maggio in “From Here to Eternity.” Frank Sinatra did it instead and won an Oscar; “Camino Real” closed after 60 performances. But Wallach claimed to have no regrets.
Wallach starred Off Broadway in “The Scarecrow” with Jackson and Neal and in 1954 as Julien in Anouilh’s “Mademoiselle Columbe” opposite Julie Harris. (He and Harris later starred in “The Lark” on TV).
Afterwards he went off to London, spending a year in “Teahouse of the August Moon.” He then did “Major Barbara,” with Charles Laughton and Burgess Meredith, on Broadway in 1956. Other stage roles included “The Chairs” and “The Cold Wind and the Warm,” with Stapleton.
For Don Siegel he appeared in magnificent film noir “The Lineup.” He played a bad guy, and did the same in “Seven Thieves” and “The Magnificent Seven.” In 1960 he joined the cast of John Huston’s “The Misfits” with Gable, Monroe, Clift and Thelma Ritter.
Over the next decade he appeared in supporting roles in a wide variety of films, including “How the West Was Won,” “The Victors,” “Act One,” “Lord Jim,” “How to Steal a Million,” “MacKenna’s Gold,” “A Lovely Way to Die,” “How to Save a Marriage,” “The Brain” (in French and English) and Sergio Leone’s classic “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Stage work was also satisfying, including Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” with Zero Mostel and Jackson, “Brecht on Brecht,” Murray Schisgal’s “The Tiger and the Typist” (which he and Jackson made into a film in 1967 called “The Tiger Makes Out”) and “Luv.” They later did “The Typist” on television.
Also for TV he did Reginald Rose’s drama “Dear Friends” on “CBS Playhouse” (drawing an Emmy nomination), Clifford Odets’ “Paradise Lost” and “20 Shades of Pink.” He played Mr. Freeze on two episodes of “Batman.” He won an Emmy for his role in the TV film “Poppies Are Also Flowers.”
Through the ’70s he did several more spaghetti Westerns, as well as films including “The Angel Levine,” “Cinderella Liberty,” “The Deep,” “Nasty Habits,” “Movie, Movie,” “Winter Kills” and “Girlfriends.”
He also flourished in telepics such as “The Wall,” “The Executioner’s Song,” “The Pirate” and “Seventh Avenue,” while achieving a triumph with Jackson in 1973 in Anouilh’s “Waltz of the Toreadors.”
In the late ’70s, Wallach and Jackson toured in “The House of Blue Leaves” and a revival of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” with their two daughters.
He began to slow down in the ’80s but still turned in some good work in “Tough Guys,” “Nuts” and 1990’s “The Two Jakes” and “The Godfather: Part III,” and on the smallscreen he picked up another Emmy nom for the movie “Something in Common” with Ellen Burstyn.
Well into his 90s Wallach continued to draw supporting roles in prestige features, appearing in “Mystic River” (though uncredited), Lasse Hallstrom’s “The Hoax,” a segment of “New York, I Love You” as well as Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” both in 2010.
The actor continued to do occasional TV work, guesting, for example, on “Law and Order” in 1992, on Sidney Lumet’s “100 Centre Street” in 2001, on “ER” in 2003, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” in 2006 and “Nurse Jackie” in 2009 (drawing two more Emmy noms for these last two perfs); he recurred on “The Education of Max Bixford” in 2002. More frequently he did voiceover work, including for 2006 Oscar-winning animated short “The Moon and the Son.”
The Brooklyn-born Wallach was educated at the U. of Texas and City College of New York, where he received his B.A. and M.S. in education. Though he felt the odds were against him — “I was a little guy,” he wrote in a New Yorker self-profile — he started studying acting as an avocation. He trained with Sanford Meisner, one of the early advocates of the Stanislavski method.
But his thespic ambitions were cut short by the draft. He entered the Army in 1941 and was a Medical Corps administrator for more than four years, serving in the Pacific and Europe and achieving the rank of captain by the time of his discharge.
One of his first acting jobs out of the Army in 1945 was in an Equity Library Theater production of Tennessee Williams’ one-act “This Property Is Condemned.” Also in the play was young actress Anne Jackson, whom he married in 1948.
His Broadway debut came at the end of 1945 in the drama “Skydrift.” The following year he joined the American Repertory Theater, performing Shakespeare, Shaw and even “Alice in Wonderland,” in which he played a duck and the Two of Spades. His stage career took off in the early ’50s.
In 2005, the actor released his wittily titled autobiography, “The Good, the Bad and Me: In My Anecdotage.”
Wallach and Jackson had three children, Peter David, Roberta and Katherine.

(Eli Wallach is flanked by Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro at the 2010 Governors Awards where he received an honorary Oscar. Photo by Richard Harbaugh/A.M.P.A.S.)

Filed Under:

• Baby Doll
• Eli Wallach
• The Bad And The Ugly
• The Good

Teflon Don sentenced to life

Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the "Teflon Don" after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds of Gotti's supporters stormed the building and overturned and smashed cars before being forced back by police reinforcements.

Gotti, born and educated on the mean streets of New York City, became head of the powerful Gambino family after boss Paul Castellano was murdered outside a steakhouse in Manhattan in December 1985. The gang assassination, the first in three decades in New York, was organized by Gotti and his colleague Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. The Gambino family was known for its illegal narcotics operations, gambling activities, and car theft. During the next five years, Gotti rapidly expanded his criminal empire, and his family grew into the nation's most powerful Mafia family. Despite wide publicity of his criminal activities, Gotti managed to avoid conviction several times, usually through witness intimidation. In 1990, however, he was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Paul Castellano, and Gravano agreed to testify against him in a federal district court in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.

On April 2, 1992, John Gotti was found guilty on all counts and on June 23 was sentenced to multiple life terms without the possibility of parole.

While still imprisoned, Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002.

This Week in History, Jun 23 - Jun 29

Jun 23, 1992

Teflon Don sentenced to life

Jun 24, 1997

U.S. Air Force reports on Roswell

Jun 25, 1876

Battle of Little Bighorn

Jun 26, 1948

U.S. begins Berlin Airlift

Jun 27, 1950

Truman orders U.S. forces to Korea

Jun 28, 1953

Workers assemble first Corvette in Flint, Michigan

Jun 29, 1995

U.S. space shuttle docks with Russian space station

Rescue of Ancient Ruin of Pompeii Follows New Plan

Restoration at the beleaguered archaeological site will be modeled on Herculaneum.

Mount Vesuvius looms over the ruins of Pompeii, destroyed by a volcanic eruption in A.D. 79.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CIRO DE LUCA, REUTERS

Dan Vergano

National Geographic

PUBLISHED APRIL 18, 2014

A ruin facing ruin, Pompeii looks to one of its doomed sister cities in its latest rescue effort. (Related: "The Real Pompeii.")

Italian officials this month unveiled details of the Great Pompeii Project, a 105-million-euro ($145 million U.S.) project to restore the famed Roman town, pillaged by treasure hunters, overrun by tourists, and wracked by the elements in the four centuries since its rediscovery. (See "Doomsday Pompeii.")

A highly innovative, "maintenance-based" approach to restoration will guide the project, said Massimo Osanna, the newly appointed superintendent of the site, in a statement.

Instead of piecemeal patches to individual buildings or attractions, the effort will take its cues from the conservation of the nearby buried Roman town of Herculaneum. The hope is that by putting comprehensive maintenance concerns first, more of the site can be opened to visitors.

In 2013 Pompeii was visited by almost 2.5 million tourists, adding to the site's deterioration.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GIORGIO COSULICH, GETTY

Over the past decade, the Herculaneum Conservation Project has been credited with saving that nearby ruin. The 20-million-euro ($27.7 million U.S.) effort was a partnership with the Packard Humanities Institute of Los Altos, California, and the British School at Rome.

At Pompeii, the one-year effort will focus on sealing the masonry of the town's homes, walls, and embankments (which are vulnerable to rainfall) and establishing better security and adding video cameras at the site, located in the organized-crime-ridden part of southern Italy.

"This looks like a very encouraging initiative. But we mustn't expect quick fixes. Conservation of ruins on the scale of Pompeii is hugely expensive," says classicist Mary Beard, author of The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. "The work at Herculaneum is certainly a model, but it is a much smaller site."

The Temple of Venus and the wall of a tomb were found damaged on March 2, possibly due to heavy rain.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIO LAPORTA, AFP/GETTY

Ruined Ruin

Blanketed with ash by the A.D. 79 eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii's rediscovery has seen almost three-quarters of its homes, temples, and streets exposed to the elements, with the removal of the deadly, preserving ash that once roughly buried the town.

Once home to perhaps 12,000 people, Pompeii is now one of the world's great tourist sites, seeing more than two million visitors a year. Tourists, thieves, and time have made the 163-acre (66-hectare) ruin more of a ruin, with three walls suffering collapses and vandals stealing a fresco in March.

Herculaneum was a nearby town buried even deeper by Vesuvius, under about 82 feet (25 meters) of ash, and is a smaller tourist site. Roofing and drains made much of the difference in its restoration. And now it isPompeii's turn.

The latest effort to restore Pompeii will take one year and cost 105 million euros ($145 million U.S.).

PHOTOGRAPH BY CIRO DE LUCA, REUTERS/CORBIS

"The collaboration of archaeologists, conservationists, engineers, [and others] at Herculaneum, organized as a comprehensive team, is absolutely the way forward for Pompeii, and likely many other sites," says classicist Virginia Campbell of the United Kingdom's University of Leeds.

"Yet, the sites are very different in terms of levels of preservation, some of the problems encountered, and of course the vast difference in area," Campbell says. "So while the basic methodology absolutely should be adopted for Pompeii, the results will likely be less noticeable and consume a lot more time and money."

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