Another violent weekend, another band-aid solution

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's response to another violent weekend in Chicago is police crackdown on Greater Grand Crossing, the neighborhood where most of the weekend homicides and shootings occured. Three of the nine homicides over the weekend and roughly 40 percent of the 32 shootings took place in Greater Grand Crossing.
The mayor credits heavy police presence as a crime deterrant in two other  dangerous areas in the city and apparently believes that patrols by police officers in the roughly 16-square-block area will reduce violence (and bury crime headlines and homicides statistics).
Chicago has reported 52 homicides so far this month, 17 more than August 2011.
Draconian measures, however, do not work nearly as well as the mayor would like. The offenders and gangs will temporarily dissipate or move their operations elsewhere.
Engaging community leaders may be a far more effective and long-lasting crime prevention tactic than deploying heavy police force; legal resources and moral engagement can effectively be used to combat gangs and gang culture, rather than targeting individual offenders.
The mayor, the city, the authorities and the communities should find common ground and share resources, faith and courage to include the criminals themselves as part of the solution.
- TYO / George Zorbas

Download τhe August 26 Ta Yp' Opsin podcast

The August 26 Ta Yp' Opsin news roundup podcast (in Greek) available for download:

PART I
- Breaking news as it develops

- GOP Tampa convention

- «No Easy Day»

- Shootings and two Armstrongs in the news

-latest news from Greece / Euro-economy weekly watch

- Alawites and Syria’s future

- A year after the fall of Tripoli

Plus, in PART II:

- A naked prince and the spending of European monarchies

- Brain freeze and restricted cultural delicacies

- Blasphemy for some, insult for others

- The snake biter and the lazy postman

Download here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1KU27prGcwUQ3lLam5OQTJLdFk/edit

Ta Yp’Opsin (Consider These) weekly podcast with Greek Chicago journalists Elena Spilioti and George Zorbas. Discussion, analysis and great music.

Τhe heart of Manhattan vs. Chicago’s South and West sides

The area around the Empire State Building in New York City attracted more news outlets and police officers than tourists and commuters on Friday morning, August 24, after news broke of a shootout near the tourist entrance of the landmark skyscraper.

Chicago, meanwhile, had just emerged from a night of shootings that barely made it to the national news.

A disgruntled women's accessories designer, Jeffrey Johnson, 58, shot his 41 year-old former boss, Steven Ercolino near New York’s most popular tourist attraction before he was killed by police. Nine others were hit by bullets, some possibly fired by police, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a press briefing.

Across Chicago’s South and West sides 19 people were shot from Thursday evening through early Friday morning. The majority of the shootings are attributed to gang rivalries. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not hold a press conference.

Once terrorism -- domestic or otherwise -- was ruled out in the New York shooting and the gunman proved not to be a white supremacist or mass killer, the press provided statistics on workplace violence and moved on to Romney’s comment about birth certificates and Lance Armstrong’s possible loss of seven Tour de France titles.

There are no tourist attractions in Chicago’s six districts where the shootings and murders mainly occur, only vacant city blocks and alienated and afraid residents. Gang violence casualties are reported any given weekend, a war zone like Afghanistan.

Emanuel’s anti-gang strategy seems to be a losing battle; measures like demolitions of empty buildings and citizen brigades policing streets seem radical but are detached, isolated and slow in bearing results.

-Unless gang violence becomes a national issue and true priority of politicians,

-Unless all city residents pressure for solutions and are outraged for every single report of gun casualty,

-Unless the press breaks old habits and focuses on grief and true concern of gang violence,

-Unless bold investments and courageous decisions by aldermen bring change and hope to these neighborhoods

The Midwest’s biggest city will be an active war zone with innocent civilians as the “collateral damage” of raging violence.

- George Zorbas, TYO

Prince Harry's naked American adventure

A quirky take on a British royal "making it" in America:

"... one of the most enduring cliches in the British media is that if a Briton achieves an American accolade, it is not just a triumph for Briton but Britain. One sees this when a Briton wins an Academy Award ("The British are coming!") and, conversely, when a Briton fails to "break America". This latter occurrence sparks up collective shame and self-deprecation, that old inferiority complex flaring up again with accompanying mockery in the press that Oasis, or Robbie Williams, or whoever had the temerity in the first place to try to make it in America.
But today's subject was never one to be cowed by the risk of humiliation or regret. No sirree bob. So he headed west, with nothing more than a vague dream of good times and a reservation at the Wynn Encore Resort in Las Vegas in his pocket, his pinking face shiny with anticipation. He strolled into the town of bright lights and dashed dreams and, like the cunning neophyte that he is, he pitched himself up at Schwab's Pharmacy or, that is, the modern-day equivalent thereof, a hotel suite riddled with cameraphones, where he would be discovered. And discovered he most certainly was. Because he didn't worry about what others thought, or what tomorrow might hold, or what that stranger was doing in the corner with a mobile phone, this youngster attained the highest accolade in this modern age, one that doesn't capture the zeitgeist – it is the zeitgeist: "PRINCE HARRY NAKED PHOTOS DURING VEGAS RAGER – EXCLUSIVE.
Harry made tmz.com! That taste you taste, Great Britain? That is the taste of validation! The British are com – oh, um. Wait. Let's scratch that one, actually..."

-Hadley Freeman, Prince Harry's naked antics – a triumph for Britain?
The Guardian

DON'T Do It Yourself!

It's one thing to stage a do-it-yourself renovation on a table, mirror or painting found deep in the weeds of a yard sale.
It's quite another to attempt a repair job on a one-of-a-kind 19 th century fresco by the Spanish painter Elias Garcia Martinez with a few broad brushstrokes.
Such was the lesson learned by an elderly member of the Santuario de Misericodia churchin Borja, in northeastern Spain. Her handiwork, or lack thereof, was discovered after the painter's granddaughter donated the work, "Ecce Homo," to the archive of religious paintings housed at the Centro de Estudios Borjano, also in Borja. When officials from the center went to examine the work at the church a few weeks ago, they found it was not as Martinez had left it, the U.K.'s Telegraph reported.
The last photo taken of the artwork before any damage was done, in 2010, showed Martinez's intricate brush strokes around the face of Jesus. A photo taken in July by center officials for a catalog of regional religious art showed the painting splattered by white marks, possibly the work of the woman trying to remove paint. The final photo, taken this month after Martinez's relative donated the work, showed broad and thick layers of paint now covering important details in the work, such as the crown of thorns on Jesus' head.
While not a good day for art historians, local officials said the restoration attempt by the woman, said to be in her 80s, was not malicious, just misguided.
Juan Maria Ojeda, the city councilor in charge of cultural affairs, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais that the woman turned herself in and admitted causing the damage when she realized it had "gotten out of hand." He added that the woman, who was not identified, attempted to restore the work with "with good intentions."
-ABC News
(Photo: Centro de Estudios Borjanos)

GOP's 2012 abortion platform contradicts Romney's position on abortions

No exceptions for rape, no civil unions for same-sex couples in GOP's platform

"The unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed” the draft 2012 anti-abortion platform states and includes support for “a human life amendment to the Constitution."
The committee in charge of the Republican Party’s platform approved the language Tuesday without adding exceptions for rape.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and VP candidate Paul Ryan oppose abortion rights but they would not oppose abortion in instances of rape, their campaign has said.
Delegates rejected calls to include civil unions for same-sex couples in the party platform. The platform calls instead for approval of a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Barbara Ann Fenton of Rhode Island proposed an unsuccessful amendment to recognize civil-union partnerships for both heterosexual and homosexual couples.“Homosexuality is not the biggest thing in the world” for her generation, she said.
Social conservative activist Tony Perkins, a Louisiana delegate and president of the Family Research Council, opposed the idea. “We recognize nature, we recognize history, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” he said.
The platform document must be approved by the full convention next week.
TYO               Source:AP, LA Times
UPDATE
Here's some GOP spin on the disparity between the Rebublican Party's 2012 anti-abortion platform and Mitt Romney's position: "This is the platform of the Republican Party; it's not the platform of Mitt Romney," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday on MSNBC! "I think as far as the details of some of these things, like an exception for rape or life of the mother, these are not uncommon differences that candidates have and don't share some of the detail on some of those exceptions," Priebus said.

Just a few smirks...

Some of  the funniest(?) jokes from this year's Edinburgh festival fringe. Now remember, comedy is subjective and then there is British humor. No fear of bursting with laughter here.

The top joke:
"You know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks." –Stewart Francis
Among the top ten:
"I was raised as an only child, which really annoyed my sister." –Will Marsh
"You know you're working class when your TV is bigger than your book case." – Rob Beckett
"I took part in the sun tanning Olympics - I just got Bronze." – Tim Vine
"I waited an hour for my starter so I complained: 'It's not rocket salad." –Lou Sanders
(this one escapes us)
"My mum's so pessimistic, that if there was an Olympics for pessimism … she wouldn't fancy her chances." –Nish Kumar
The top joke picked up 20% of the votes to win the fifth annual Dave award for the funniest joke of the fringe. About 3,000 people voted for the joke, choosing from 30 which had been gathered by a panel of comedy critics and writers.

Source: The Guardian