Syracuse, NY — At my internship with the Post-Standard I read a substantial amount of news every day. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but the New York Times is the first place I start to read. The top story: Kyrgyzstan riots.
Yesterday in the small Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, hundreds of protesters rushed city buildings and attacked police, demanding for President Kurmanbek Saliyevich Bakiyev to resign. Why? From what I’ve read, Bakiyev was a power hungry and nepotistic politician who lost favor with his people, fast. In the Times article, “Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan Could Imperil Key U.S. Base,” Clifford Levy painted a picture of the chaos,
Riot police officers fired rounds of live ammunition into angry crowds of demonstrators who gathered around government buildings to rally against what they termed the government’s brutality and corruption, as well as a recent decision to increase utility rates sharply. Witnesses said that the police seemed to panic, and that there was no sign of supervision. In several cases, demonstrators wrested their weapons away from them.
And if that description wasn’t enough, 20 intense photographs from Reuters and the Associated Press documented the violence. Here is one of them that really caught my attention,
What a shot. Did you see the rock flying through the air?
The photograph was taken by the AP’s Ivan Sekretarev. The caption read,
Injured and bloodied Kyrgyz police officers huddled together for protection. Dmitri Kabak, director of a local human rights group in Bishkek, said he saw riot police officers begin shooting at protesters in the central square. He said he had the sense that the officers had panicked and were not being supervised.
Maybe it’s coincidence, but yesterday I also started watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” for the second time.
Anderson’s “Boogie Nights” was funny and “Magnolia” was clever. “There Will Be Blood” was genius.
Daniel “Two-time Academy Award winning lead role actor” Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a tormented oil man. With a cast of unknowns, Lewis is giant among men in this film about oil, religion and possession. The Times‘ Manohla Dargis said that Lewis seemed “to have invaded Plainview’s every atom, filling an otherwise empty vessel with so much rage and purpose you wait for him to blow.”
I have 30 minutes or so left to watch. I need to buckle in and drink my milkshake.
- east coast paper boy
Tags: academy awards, ap, associated press, bbc news, Bishkek, boogie nights, CLIFFORD J. LEVY, daniel day lewis, Dmitri Kabak, film, grad school, idrinkyourmilkshake.com, internship, Ivan Sekretarev, journalism, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan, magnolia, manohla dargis, movie review, new york, new york times, ny, ny times, oil, paul thomas anderson, post-standard, riots, s.i. newhouse school of public communications, syracuse, there will be blood, Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan Could Imperil Key U.S. Base
