Instagram, the value of

Viktoria Odintcova, a Russian model sitting in a park. 

Wearing jeans cut off way above her thighs, a black loose fitting t-shirt with a V-cut showing her ample breasts, and tennis shoes, Viktoria Odintcova allowed herself to hang on to the grip of a man 73 stories above the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates dangling in the air to have pictures taken for the 'likes' on her Instagram account. The video features the crew practicing on ground, and then arriving at the Cayan Tower in Dubai to do the real thing (without permission). This is an international problem and she violated laws. The most grievous thing she did was to be socially disrespectful and contemptuous of Arab culture and the rules of safety accepted by nations without exceptions made for 'entitled' people from European countries. Somehow, Europeans and white Americans are snug in their assumptions of exclusivity.

Well, there is another thing not taken into consideration. There are ripple effects. Global economies. The things citizens do in other countries have impact internationally, and during a time of Arabic people's reaction to Western powers she left herself vulnerable in the part of the world who see her in a different light out of a woman's place in their house! Also, an assistant to the chief of police in Dubai said that Viktoria Odintcova “had been summoned to sign an undertaking not to repeat any dangerous moves that could endanger her life in Dubai.” According to Emirati newspaper The National. 

This young wisp of a woman, Viktoria, "grips a blond helper’s hand as he confidently encourages her to lean away from the top of the 1,000-foot building. As she leans back, her hair flows and her eyes close, and somehow she gets comfortable enough to look serene in images captured by her team. As if that were not enough of a risk, she then gets down on her knees, while still holding the hand of her “spotter” and then gracefully flops off the rails, the guy’s forearm strength the only thing keeping her from plummeting to the ground.

Somehow, she still looks beautiful, with her T-shirt falling off her shoulders, and her sneakers (they’re not even fancy suction-cupped shoes or something high-tech!) kicking about as if she’s just dangling from the side of a pool."

The Russian model is a thrill seeker. She has done other stunts in other parts of the world. Daredevils are not unusual. They are generally found in every culture as variations of the sort in guises such as wildly creative musicians or artists, soldiers of exceptional skill, athletes, politicians, parents, and so forth.  In today's world daredevils like this young woman face a challenge: too much attention immediately and a lack of business acumen. They cannot live invisible lives as we older people all have been able to do in times past. She will probably have her insurance rates increase. Undisciplined or uncaring or not knowing better people like her have to broadcast every adventure of their lives to be liked by total strangers, who either love and admire them, or despise them.

For 'likes' on Instagram, Angela Nikolau, another Russian model who last year in 2017 stepped off the roof of a ridiculously tall building in Guangzhou, China, in an adorable dress and heels! Viktoria Odintcova posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka, and has also bungee-jumped in Sochi, Russia, with a camera in hand, and prettily posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka.

Top model Coco Rocha pulled something similar when she balanced in pink heels on a ledge lots of stories up with no strings attached for the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Taiwan over the summer. Then she sat on the ledge, saying, “So here we are on set, you think it’s a normal day, until you might be asked to do something like this, and you do it willingly, ’cuz you love the art of fashion,” in her behind-the-scenes video for Instagram. She made sure to add the hashtag #DontTryThisAtHome.

It is childish. It's fun. The urge within them must burn to act out what they envision but the dangers are in the shadows and children raised to be unaware of how things work are easy targets in the vicious political games of terror, exploitation and a few other nefarious ventures. The questions they didn't ask most likely were who would protect them? How do I be disrespectful, and why is it important to have deep knowledge with your dreams?

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Feb. 22, 2017  

Viktoria Odintcova dangling from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Dubai for Instagram likes in Feb. 2017.

Russian model, Viktoria Odintcova dangling above Dubais from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Feb. 2017.

wHAT DO wE wANT fROM AFRICA?



Senegalese woman belongs to the Serer people who are the third largest ethnic group in the country.

Africa

U.S. Increases Antiterrorism Exercises With African Militaries

By HELENE COOPER MAY 26, 2016

ARUSHA, Tanzania — After a series of terrorist attacks on hotels and other tourist sites that raised concerns all across Africa, the United States has increased training exercises with militaries here, focusing on how to defend civilian targets on a continent that has become a significant battleground in the war against militant Islam.

 

In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, United States Army troops simulated an elaborate hostage rescue with West African forces this month. The combined forces stormed a building, shot mock militants and secured the hostages.

 

In Kenya, American trainers funded by the State Department have been working with police commandos on how to respond to terrorist attacks like the Westgate shopping mall raid in 2013, when fighters with the Shabab, the local affiliate of Al Qaeda, killed 67 people and wounded 175 more.

 

And in Gabon next month, paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division — after crossing the Atlantic from their Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters — are scheduled to jump out of a plane and straight into a joint exercise, part of an effort to train Central African militaries in elaborate raids, strikes and rescue missions.

 

The training effort between the American military and its African partners is a far cry from the days when the Pentagon viewed the continent as a place to avoid, fearing open-ended United Nations peacekeeping missions.

 

“In the past, Africa was seen through the peacekeeping lens,” said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 

But now, she said, “the U.S. looks at Africa differently.”

 

“Some of the threats, whether it’s Al Shabab, ISIL, Boko Haram or AQIM, pose a more direct and sophisticated threat to African states, to European allies, and potentially to the United States,” she added.

 

Those four militant Islamist extremist groups — the Shabab in East Africa, the Islamic State affiliate in Libya, Boko Haram in Central and West Africa, and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb region of West Africa — are widely believed to be the terrorist organizations that pose the most direct threat to civilians across the continent.

 

At an African Land Forces Summit meeting here last week, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff, urged his African counterparts to draw on their own experiences battling colonial European powers to fight the four terrorist groups.

“Many of you in this room are descendants of fighters who practiced guerrilla warfare against the French, the British, the colonial forces of Europe,” General Milley told senior military officials from 37 African countries. “Embedded in your armies is the knowledge of how to fight guerrilla warfare.”

But defending “soft targets” — military jargon for hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls and other places where unarmed civilians congregate — is difficult for sophisticated militaries, let alone the continent’s fledging security forces.

 

American law restricts the Pentagon’s direct work with African police forces — that is done through the State Department — so the American military often finds itself struggling to make sure that its training is going to the people most likely to be charged with carrying out missions like rescuing hostages.

 

“It’s going to take time,” General Milley said during his speech at the Arusha meeting, “but we’re going to do this selectively, without abusing people.”...  more

Continue reading the main story




Senegalese commandos in American led training exercises.
photo by Sergey Ponomarev for New York Times. (2016)

 

REALITY = CASH in business.

Kim Kardashian for Vogue Italia

Kim Kardashian stuns the senses in a cherry red midi
(and matching Christian Louboutin pumps)
while out and about in Los Angeles !!!!

Despite being a reality star, and having a sex tape on the market, Kim Kardashian's appearances are international events. I believe the money she generates for other people, and an assortment of industries, or more succinctly the value she brings to the market place is the primal impetus of all the fuss around her. As her beauty unfolds many expect to be astounded by her appearance, and insight during her older years much the way people like Dixie Carter, Eartha Kitt, First Lady Roslyn Carter, actress Cicely Tyson, my mother and her mother did. Aging is impressive if one lives deeply and doesn't subscribe to short cuts or illusions of forever youth. 

Growing up physically, and maturing are not the same thing. Physically growing up only leads to dead ends, and disappointments if a soul cannot bend like the oak, or flow as a stream from within  Maturity is a spiritual undertaking, and intellectual development. It is the learned capacity to have control over one's emotions, one's spirit and the words of the moth. Maturity is control over reactions and actions. Maturity is revelation. Much is revealed during evolution, and creation stories are the process of budding understandings from crude abrupt awakenings to relationships with True Powers! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9.30.13

radio host Lady B at sunset sitting on Stone People !!!!

Real Housewives of Atlanta season 3 !!!!

White Woman's past...

Brooklyn Brat Images

Boudoir shot of Josie Von Katz by Tara Leavitt
for Brooklyn Brat Images
July 31, 2014 · 

  

"This is a carefully planned shot and photo shoot. It is also a vivid reminder of the long trek white women have led their men to deepening their perception of them in exchange for rights, and dignity. I believe the biggest challenge and threat to women's rights in general and in particular white women is the conservative religious movement of fundamentalists of Islam and Christianity. If there were ever social uprising in the West of terrifying proportions and country after country were ransacked by say a force; the advancements of women would be first to go away. The questions this presents is first how to create change in the way white women perceive women of color. Second answer to the larger population of women of color and indigenous women is complex. These are trampled on women white women and their men trampled upon. 

White women like to pretend not to remember or have forgotten what their role was in the social upheavals world conquest, and . . ." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.8.15

Social Media Interactions

There’s this great Andy Warhol quote you’ve probably seen before: “I think everybody should like everybody.” You can buy posters and plates with pictures of Warhol, looking like the cover of a Belle & Sebastian album, with that phrase plastered across his face in Helvetica. But the full quote, taken from a 1963 interview in Art News, is a great description of how we interact on social media today.

Warhol: Someone said that Brecht wanted everybody to think alike. I want everybody to think alike. But Brecht wanted to do it through Communism, in a way. Russia is doing it under government. It’s happening here all by itself without being under a strict government; so if it’s working without trying, why can’t it work without being Communist? Everybody looks alike and acts alike, and we’re getting more and more that way.

I think everybody should be a machine. I think everybody should like everybody.

Art News: Is that what pop art is all about?

Warhol: Yes. It’s liking things.

Art News: And liking things is like being a machine?

Warhol: Yes, because you do the same thing every time. You do it over and over again.

The like and the favorite are the new metrics of success — very literally. Not only are they ego-feeders for the stuff we put online as individuals, but advertisers track their campaigns on Facebook by how often they are liked. A recent New York Times story on a krill oil ad campaign lays bare how much the like matters to advertisers. Liking is an economic act.

I like everything. Or at least I did, for 48 hours. Literally everything Facebook sent my way, I liked — even if I hated it. I decided to embark on a campaign of conscious liking, to see how it would affect what Facebook showed me. I know this sounds like a stunt (and it was) but it was also genuinely just an open-ended experiment. I wasn’t sure how long I’d keep it up (48 hours was all I could stand) or what I’d learn (possibly nothing.)

Read More

REPUBLICAN PARTY

Latina actress Raquel Welch

Unearthing, and understanding the patterns, the structures that set the beliefs that conduct action from particular mindsets is more important to change than the definitive terms conservative or liberal, or fight to preserve old traditions or be free. This will lead to a better view of the energies that govern lawmakers, and the public emphasizing and exaggerating the importance of saying, "I am a Republican, or I am a Democrat." And being one or the other.

We can go back and forth with this, but within the Republican party's mindset was and still is a deep resistance to the basic commitment to do some of the basic things necessary to insure better futures for the coming generations. Deep within the ranks of the conservative consciousness there is a dogged insistence to be consistent in our inconsistencies. Cases in point: rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, shoring up defenses for economic calamity, creating and improving the social system's capacity to catch people who fall through the cracks, making the voting process honest, shucking the notion that people should pull themselves up by their own boot straps, or changing the philosophical conceptions of education to get the best out of most of our children!

During the Bush administration some of the country watched in horror as the Congress (both sides) allowed a weak president, much despised prior to 9/11/01, free reign to do whatever he wanted, and to spend what he wanted for the weakest of reasons. Without the benefit of intellectual discourse Congress took the country from surplus to debt and Iraq in an effort to avoid pursuing Osama bin Laden. Was that a triumph, or a coup?

There is a fundamental flaw in the thinking of the Republican party that is steeped in the Old South. It is no secret, and it is heavily defended with the language of liberal (free) thinkers easily because of the miseducation of a growing number of people from American schools... - Gregory E. Woods (2.12.13)

Sarah Palin

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: Syria

These Boots Are Made For Walking

by Timothy W. Higgins

Sept. 15, 2013

It's been a week where an inadvertent remark by Secretary of State John Kerry has done more for Middle East peace than his predecessor's entire tenure and Vladimir Putin is as busy as President Obama in making the case to the American people for how stability in the Syria is to be reached.

Russia and the US have apparently negotiated an agreement about dismantling the chemical weapons in Syria.  With its agreement, Syria will now become a signatory of UN prohibitions against using weapons that it never admitted that it had, and surrender them without actually admitting that it used them on its own citizens.  In return, President Obama will quietly withdraw a request for permission that he was never going to get from Congress for a response to their use; which no one wanted to look too closely at, lest they discover that some of them had come across the border from Iraq during one of the previous Administration's foreign policy escapades and have to admit that they were there in the first place.

According to statements being released by press secretaries and State Department representatives, no one need now fear that 'boots on the ground' will be required as a follow up to a never approved missile attack that was apparently designed to accomplish nothing other than blowing up $350 million of ordinance without making a regime change or inflicting a civilian casualty.  What a relief!  (What a load of crap!)

Wait a minute!  These are CHEMICAL WEAPONS whose components can only be destroyed properly by those with expert knowledge of such weaponry under the most exacting of conditions in specialized facilities through the use of tremendous heat.  Without delving too deeply into how the United States gained the singular expertise required for the destruction of such materials and the demolition of the sites that create them, I would suggest that anyone who believes that those with such proficiency are not in uniform may already be committing significant abuse where modern chemistry is concerned. 

As for their safe disposal ...  The last time I looked, the entire nation of Syria was a war zone occupied by multiple factions with no love for each other, let alone President Assad and his government.  (As for the US and its on again, off again support of regime change ... not so much.)  Now regardless of whether the agreeing parties yesterday also reached peace amongst the disparate factions involved with this conflict (they haven't) or is planning on imposing peace on the region by some means (no one's said so), someone's going to have to provide security, transport, and disposal of these materials while the fighting is still going on.  (Lest heaven forbid, they should fall into the wrong hands.)    

Regardless of what anyone in the Administration, Congress, or the Press is peddling these days; if this task is to be accomplished, a great number of US personnel are going to have to place themselves in harms way as part of this process.  Construction engineers are going to have to build a disposal facility in that part of the world.  (We probably have or had one in neighboring Iraq, but that nation's gone to hell under recent foreign policy and those facilities may no longer be operable.)  Security and transport will need to be provided from wherever the stockpiles have been most recently relocated (to protect them from our Tomahawk cruise missiles) to wherever the disposal and remission sites end up.  Ground forces will necessarily make up some part of that security if for no other reason than to protect convoys from IED's (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers; along with their requisite supply and logistics services.  Air cover will likewise need to be provided as part of that security, which because of the location means carrier deployment, use of Saudi air bases, or both.  Deployment of carriers will mean the further staging of a fleet of ships for support, logistics, and fleet protection.

Based on current intelligence estimates of the size of stockpiles in Syria and even assuming that the warring parties currently occupying the space allow us to proceed, it's likely that undertaking such an operation will require 'boots on the ground' for the rest of the decade at a minimum.  Up until now, the promise against such a condition is the only thing achieving bi-partisan support.  Strange that in the rush to celebrate this agreement, no one is talking about these unintended consequences of their success.  

It was Lee Hazlewood that wrote "These Boots Are Made For Walking"; that Nancy Sinatra (Frank's daughter) made famous in back in 1966.  It won't be go-go boots on the beach that we'll be talking about in 2013 and beyond however, but combat boots once again deployed to march the sand in Middle Eastern deployment. 

Update:
An earlier version of this was picked up and reprinted on the website of the

FREEDOM

Thailand's Queen Sirikit & King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Thailand arrests American for alleged king insultBy TODD PITMAN and SINFAH TUNSARAWUTH, Associated Press Todd Pitman And Sinfah Tunsarawuth, Associated Press – Fri May 27, 1:02 pm ET

BANGKOK – Thai authorities said Friday they arrested an American citizen on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog four years ago to a banned book about the Southeast Asian nation's ailing king.

The man is also suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of "The King Never Smiles" — an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej — and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family, said Tharit Pengdith, who heads the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI.

The American has denied the charges, according to the Thai-language prachatai.com news website, which tracks cases of lese majeste, as the crime of insulting the monarchy is known.

The 54-year-old Thai-born man lived in the U.S. state of Colorado for around 30 years before returning recently to Thailand for treatment for high blood pressure and gout, the website said. If the allegations are true, the infractions would have been committed while he lived in America — where they are legal — raising concern about the reach of Thai law and how it is applied to Thai nationals and foreign visitors.

Tharit said the man's Thai name was Lerpong Wichaikhammat. Walter M. Braunohler, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Bangkok, identified the American as Joe Gordon and said a consular officer visited him on Friday morning. He declined comment further, saying only that officials were following the case "very closely."

"We're still looking into what the exact charges are," Braunohler told The Associated Press.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has severe lese majeste laws that mandate a jail term of three to 15 years for any person who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the Regent."

Critics say the lese majeste laws — used with alarming frequency over the last several years — are often a weapon of political harassment and calls have grown recently to amend or abolish them.

Thai-based media routinely self-censor coverage of the royal family, but the Internet has tested the taboo. Thai authorities have responded by trying to block thousands of websites considered subversive, arguing that defending the monarchy is a priority.

Tharit said the man was arrested Tuesday and is facing charges that include inciting public unrest and violating Thailand's Computer Crimes Act. Gordon appeared before a Thai court Thursday, which denied him bail.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej

A DSI spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the American was arrested in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima and is being held in a Bangkok prison.

Praachatai.com said police arrested the man at his home and seized a computer and cell phone.

Sensitivity over criticism of the monarchy has increased in recent years as the poor health of the country's 83-year-old king has elevated concern about a smooth succession. At the same time, sharp partisan political battles in the wake of a 2006 military coup have unleashed unprecedented questioning of established institutions, including the palace.

Thailand's freedom of speech reputation has taken a battering in recent years, as successive governments have tried to suppress the opposition. Its standing in the Press Freedom Index issued by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders slid to 153 last year from 65 in 2002, when the ratings were initiated.

The number of lese majeste cases has grown dramatically in recent years. Between 1990 and 2005, an average of five per year made their way through the Thai court system. Since then, however, there have been at least 400 cases — an estimated 1,500 percent increase, according to David Streckfuss, an American scholar who wrote a recent book studying the harsh laws called "Truth on Trial."

In March, a Thai court sentenced Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul — the operator of an anti-government website — to 13 years on charges of defaming the monarchy and three more years for violating the Computer Crime Act. The 38-year-old ran a website affiliated with the anti-government Red Shirt movement whose aggressive street protests last year deteriorated into violence and were quashed by the army.

The 2007 Computer Crime Act addresses hacking and other traditional online offenses, but also bars the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security or that causes panic. It carries a penalty of up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 baht ($3,285).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110527/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_monarchy 

Queen Rania Criticized by Jordan Tribes

By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times Staff

Queen Rania, the wife of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, was publicly accused of “corruption,” by tribes in Jordan, according to reports by AFP and other media on Wednesday.


"We call on the king to return to the treasury land and farms given to the Yassin family (of the queen). The land belongs to the Jordanian people," said 36 tribal leaders in a joint statement this week, AFP reported.

In Jordan, public criticism of the royal family can be met with a three-year prison term.

Rania has achieved status as an international celebrity, frequently makes trips to United Nations meetings, and is known for her charitable works for women.

However, she was slammed by the tribes, accusing her of stealing money and getting involved in politics.


They warned that if the 40-year-old queen does not stop and if political reform does not come in the near future, then they will instigate protests in a similar vein to Tunisia and Egypt.

"Political reform is now an urgent matter that cannot be delayed, holding the corrupt and thieves accountable and freezing their assets, prohibiting them from traveling are all part and parcel of political reform,” the tribes stated, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Jordan recently experienced large protests in the street, calling for reforms. However, the protesters did not make any comment about the king or queen.

"We still have loyalty to the Hashemite throne, but we believe that King Abdullah should stop his wife and her family from abuse. Otherwise, the throne might be in danger," a member of a large tribe told AFP.

Tribes in the desert country make up around 40 percent of Jordan’s population.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/50932/