The real Nick Cave and other news and views for Sunday 6 July

20,000 Days on Earth will be released worldwide later this year. The film premiered at Sundance 2014 where it was awarded the directing and editing awards, and will continue to screen at film festivals worldwide in the coming months. Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave. With startlingly frank insights and an intimate portrayal of the artistic process, the film examines what makes us who we are, and celebrates the transformative power of the creative spirit.
  • I Am the Real Nick Cave
  • 2014-07-06_cavequotesHas GDP outgrown its use? - “Governments and the media obsess about it while statisticians endlessly fiddle – but what is the real point of GDP and can it ever be accurately measured?”
  • The gruesome truth behind an idyllic scene – “More than 66,000 migrants and refugees have arrived on Italy’s shores this year. But many don’t survive the journey – and when the Italian navy went to help migrants crammed on to a boat near Sicily, they were shocked by what they found.”
  • Why the White Working Class Matters – “The bad news: Dems can’t govern without them. The good news: Blue-collar whites are far more diverse than during the era of the Reagan Democrats.”
  • The hand-choppers of Isis are deluded: there is nothing Islamic about their caliphate -”Have we gone back in time? The era of Muslim caliphates came to a close in 1924, when the Ottomans were toppled in Turkey.”
  • How should we think about the Caliphate? - “Obama’s reluctance to intervene in Syria may seem to have backfired. But is it really clear that greater Western funding of the Free Syrian Army would have resulted in the emergence of a democratic, liberal state? The failure of the Arab Spring elsewhere suggests otherwise. Western politicians are having to adjust to their increasing inability to dominate the world. When you consider the alternatives, America’s inaction looks well advised. And while Obama is derided by left and right for his many failings it may just be that after he leaves office in a couple of years’ time, he’ll be missed.”
A statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin outside an apartment complex in Schwerin, Germany. Erected in 1985, four years before communism collapsed in East Germany, it's believed to be the last Lenin statue in Germany and the town is divided over whether it should stay. The inscription reads, 'Decree on land,' referring to a Lenin manifesto that said workers were the real owners of the land.
  • Germany’s Battle Over What May Be Its Last Lenin Statue – “A statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin outside an apartment complex in Schwerin, Germany. Erected in 1985, four years before communism collapsed in East Germany, it’s believed to be the last Lenin statue in Germany and the town is divided over whether it should stay. The inscription reads, ‘Decree on land,’ referring to a Lenin manifesto that said workers were the real owners of the land.”

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